Photo by Backpack Section leader Andy Westbom.

If wilderness is the heart of nature, then backpacking is the artery that leads us there, along a path less traveled but always ready. The skills of backpacking are developed one step at a time. The Backpacking Section provides information, experience, and leadership to support our individual quests to experience with confidence nature on her terms.

The Backpacking Section promotes education. Each spring Thomas Meissner coordinates a Beginner Backpack Course: a one-day seminar, where experienced leaders share skills and demonstrate equipment, followed by an overnight field trip to practice new skills in small groups. Look for the announcement of next year’s course in the February-March Yodeler.

Beyond this basic training, the Backpacking Section offers a wide variety of outings to expand and strengthen our experience in the outdoors.

Trips change as the seasons progress. John and Linda Ghysels lead a delightful spring flower outing to Hite Cove, a historic gold-mining region in the Sierra foothills near Yosemite. Other spring outings include destinations like Rancheria Falls in Yosemite, Preston Falls on the Tuolumne River, and Chilnaulna Falls on the South Fork of the Merced River. These outings provide close-ups of cascading melting winter snows unleashed and rushing toward the sea, powerfully displaying the cycles and moods of nature.

Relaxed main-season outings include Stan Pawlak and Teri Shore’s Murphy Creek adventure from scenic Tenaya Lake to a special glacier-carved, polished granite mantle that channels swirling spring melt past meadows bordering a playful creek set in a granite canyon featuring ridges and domes joined by delightful paths allowing opportunity for unhurried exploration of a mountain environment close to both camp and trailhead. Interested in more distance, more variety, and more named landmarks? One can follow J. P. Torres over many of the most popular Yosemite backcountry routes, or share with Robert Howell, Ted Pekny, and Dean Schwartz the wonder and isolation of the Lost Coast classic beach walk along the rugged, isolated Humboldt County Coast in the strikingly beautiful Kings Range Conservation Area. More aggressive hikers in superb physical shape can ‘run’ with Kevin Sawchuk (this author’s son) and Brian Gunney on “fast and light” outings designed to cover more ground and elevation gain, compressing normal multiple-day hiking distances into weekends of intense travel over routes most people are content only to read about.

As the season progresses, accompany Andy Westbom to the “high country”, traversing rocky, weather-worn passes between granite ramparts to high meadows bordering cascading streams and rockbound glacier-carved lakes pocked with perfect circles marking the spot of rising trout breaking the still reflections of distant vistas, with some mountains still snow-capped. Later still, accompany Roger Williams and his band of autumnal color seekers to the east side of the Sierra to enjoy fall colors splashed, like paint from a palate, on ridges glowing golden as far as the eye can see, while restless winds await winter, rustling mule ears shriveled by early frosts and rattling skeletons of cow parsnips and skunk cabbage crouched low to the ground.

And some proclaim winter to be nature’s secret time, the link between history and hope, a transition between what was and what will again be, a time of quiet reflection—pure, still, and complete—dazzling reflections of pure light captured in snowflakes, ice crystals, and frost. Some of us enter winter through the relative simplicity of hostel and wilderness-hut weekends. Leaders Al Murdach and Cathy Dezendorf, for example, enjoy the camaraderie of group-prepared meals in comfortable surroundings following the day’s hiking. They frequently lead outings to Point Reyes, Monterey, and Carmel in addition to a winter snowshoe excursion to Bradley Hut, the Sierra Club’s newest alpine hut located near Lake Tahoe. Other leaders offer more-rugged winter camping, including very popular “Yosemite in Winter” snowshoe outings to Dewey and Crocker Points on the south rim overlooking the majestic Yosemite Valley. For other winter possibilities see the articles about the Snowcamping and Ski Touring Sections in each December-January Yodeler.

Do you love the outdoors and the changing seasons with unlimited trails, but not the carrying of your abode on your back? Brad and Katy Christie offer a popular alternative: car camps or motel-based outings to carefully chosen sites depending on the season, with long challenging hikes each day. Outings have included Monterey/Carmel, Napa, the Pinnacles, the Redwoods, Bishop Park in Inyo National Forest, Yosemite, and Kings Canyon, spiced with occasional out-of-state offerings, some with prepared breakfasts and dinners (central commissary) and others depending on individual arrangements where commercial meal service is available.

Some folks are specially intrigued by long trails with special names, such as the John Muir and Pacific Crest Trails. These people can follow the mileposts, arranged like notes in the grand symphony of wilderness experience, with leaders like Thomas Meissner, Katy Christie, and Craig Vassel, who plan trips dividing these trails into segments manageable for day hikes, using car shuttles to link trailheads with motel/campground bases.

Backpacking is life in all seasons waiting to create personal memories for you. The Backpacking Section is dedicated to assist you by providing safe, fulfilling, co-operative group settings for experiencing wilderness, the ultimate unbridled expression of nature. For fullest trip listings see the Chapter Calendar.

Lloyd Sawchuk, Treasurer, Backpack Section

When it comes to programs and policies for our volunteers, we rely upon the members of our Executive Committees to do the steering.

It’s the ExComm that keeps our Chapter and each regional group on track and moving in the right direction.

That’s why it’s so vitally important to find new ExComm members to help serve with this talented and committed group of volunteers. We always need new minds to contribute new perspectives as we map our Chapter’s future.

This means that our upcoming election is a critical challenge for Bay Chapter—and is your opportunity to become more involved with the Sierra Club in a meaningful way. Want to help us? Want to get in the driver’s seat and try your hand at the wheel? Or know someone else who does?

The ballot will be sent out in the fall, with the December-January Yodeler, but it’s time now to recruit candidates.

WhatYouCanDo

There are two ways you can help–either by running for a Chapter or group ExComm, or by serving on the Chapter’s Nominations and Elections Committee.

To run for an ExComm, to nominate someone else,  to serve on the Nominations Committee, or for more information on Chapter and group elections, contact Yodeler editor Don Forman at yodedit@sfbaysc.org or (510)848-0800, ext. 305.

Receptionist

The Chapter Office in Berkeley needs volunteer receptionists to be energetic, service-oriented and gracious team members, answering the phone, directing calls, greeting guests, responding to inquiries, and providing general office support. Shifts include Mondays and Thursdays 2 – 5 pm and alternate Thursdays 10 – 2. We request a six-month commitment. Training and on-going support. Call office manager　Deirdre Ashby　at (510)848-0800, ext.　 315.

Interview candidates wanting Sierra Club endorsements

Before the Sierra Club Bay Chapter endorses candidates for local office, it sends them questionnaires and interviews them. Help us find the best candidates; get involved by participating in some interviews this spring and summer. It’s a great chance to learn about local issues and about the Club’s political process. You’ll take part in a one-hour training before interviewing. To help, contact:

Northern Alameda Group: Kent Lewandowski at kentlewan@yahoo.com;

TriValley Group: Janis Kate Turner at jkturner2001@yahoo.com.

Webmaster and translators

 Sierra Club California is the key guardian of our environment in Sacramento. It now has volunteer opportunities for:

• a webmaster;
• people to help translate material to different languages (especially Mandarin).

To help, please contact Annie Pham at annie.pham@sierraclub.org.

Tree planters, every Saturday, 9 – 1

 Two years ago the Northern Alameda Group began planting street trees in front of homes in Oakland (see article, page xxx). Last winter Councilmember Jane Brunner offered to fund costs for this work, and she has renewed her commitment for this planting season. Our team is looking for more volunteers to help dig holes, plant trees, set stakes, etc.—any Saturday 9 am – 1 pm. We provide all tools and supplies. Groups from churches, schools, troops, businesses, etc. can work together on a given day. Contact Arthur Boone, tree-team lead, at arboone3@gmail.com or (510)910-6451 to arrange your participation.

Secretary for Northern Alameda County Group

The Group meets　the fourth Monday of each　month from 7 until around 9:30 pm at the Chapter Office in Berkeley to help take positions on local issues. The secretary records the minutes to help us stay organized. 　You need to be able to type and send the minutes via e-mail.　A laptop can be provided for you. To volunteer, contact Group chair Kent Lewandowski at (510)547-1207 or kentlewan@yahoo.com

Nominations/Elections Committee

 The Chapter’s Nominations and Elections Committee administers next fall’s elections for the Chapter and Group Executive Committees. Tasks begin in April and last through vote-counting. They include:

• recruiting candidates for the Chapter ExComm;
• encouraging each group to recruit enough candidates;
• preparing the Chapter election supplement;
• increasing member participation in the election.

You don’t need to be an insider, but it helps to be organized and a self-starter. It’s a great chance to get to know lots of wonderful Sierra Club leaders and potential new ones.

To volunteer, contact Don Forman at yodedit@sfbaysc.org or (510)848-0800, ext. 305.

Help plan Wilderness Act 50th anniversary

The Wilderness Act will turn 50 on Sep. 3, 2014 (see article), and celebrations around the country will mark the achievement. To help organize anniversary-celebration events in the Bay Area, or if you have ideas about ways we can promote and publicize wilderness during 2014, contact Vicky Hoover at (415)977-5527 or Vicky.hoover@sierraclub.org; or Cassie Barr, Chapter wilderness chair, at (510)336-7022 or cbatloom@aol.com.

Mike Hayman. Photo by Alison Brick.

Mike Hayman of the Hiking Section has been named recipient of the Bay Chapter’s 2012 Mitchener Award for outstanding outings leadership.

Growing up in London England, Mike Hayman loved rugby for its combination of sport and socializing. “You’d play pretty rough, then go socialize with the competition,” says the 81-year-old.

In 1968, after moving to New York City for his work as a chemical engineer, Mike joined the Appalachian Mountain Club and started scouting and leading hikes. Hiking brought him the same combination of outdoor exertion and conviviality.  “It’s where I’ve met most of my friends in the U.S.—hiking in one way or another.”

Moving to San Francisco, on his first local Sierra Club hike, in the Marin Headlands, he was struck by the difference in scenery from the East Coast. “The thing I remember about first hiking in this area were the open, beautiful views.” Mike started leading Bay Area outings in 1981, and his favorites include Castle Rock, Sunol, and Mount Tam. He’s also gone on two national Sierra Club outings in the southwest. “If you come from a country like England, where everything is lush, deserts are fascinating.” Even today, on his balcony he grows cacti and other succulents.

But he’s best-known for his innovative city hikes. Years ago, after going on an hour-long hike led by Adah Bakalinsky, author of Stairway Walks in San Francisco, he was inspired to create longer stairway hikes. He’d study maps, looking for apparent dead ends; driving there he’d usually find a stairway. It might keep drivers away, but that only added to the appeal of hiking there. “I try to get away from traffic as much as possible.” At stairways like the Harry Street stairs “You think you’re in the country,” he says.

The most memorable and most strenuous hike he’s led is “Bay to Breakers, by the scenic route”—from the Ferry Building via Telegraph Hill, Chinatown, Russian Hill, Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, and Seacliff to finish at Seal Rocks.

Regardless of the destination, all of Mike’s hikes end in time for a convivial dinner afterward. The people he meets are why Mike has continued to hike with the Sierra Club over the years.

Knee problems have slowed the stair-walker down. “One day on a hike in Berkeley, Mike was clearly in great pain because of the stairs, but he continued because it’s a place he wanted to show others,” says fellow Michener Award winner Guy Mayes (see July 2007, page 17; and May 2003, page 18), who has known Mike since the ’80s. “I think it represented a certain degree of courage.”

Since knee surgery in about 1997, he’s joined deep-water aerobic classes to exercise without the impact. Another outdoor hobby is tending a community-garden plot, where he grows flowers—currently dahlias.

Mike has shortened his outings, cutting out stairs, and hikes with a walking stick, but his leadership is just as appreciated.

“What he does fills an important gap in our hiking menu,” says fellow hike leader John Calderwood. “As I look through our schedule in the Yodeler, I see plenty of 2Bs, 3Cs, and even 4Ds. Thirty years ago I led 2Bs and 3Cs, but that was 30 years ago. I want something more than an hour’s walk on a level path. And Mike supplies the perfect compromise—an outing of several hours, with genuine but not excessive ups and downs in the company of delightful people. I get my exercise, I get my socialization. I’m one happy hiker thanks to Mike.”

Alison Brick

Alison works as brochure editor and outdoor-activity webmaster for the Sierra Club’s national Outings Department.

You too can hike with Mike. For times and details, see the Chapter Calendar, on-line or in every Yodeler, starting on page A.

Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in San Francisco, threatened with closure in the governor's budget. Photo courtesy California Department of Parks and Recreation.

On May 15 Gov. Jerry Brown released the May Revision to his 2012-2013 state budget proposal. The expected budget shortfall for the year has climbed to $15.7 billion. Numerous environmental programs and issues are affected.

The governor’s proposal does not changed planned budget cuts to the State Department of Parks and Recreation, which will result in closure of up to 70 state parks in July (see previous articles on Candlestick Point State Recreation Area and Little Hoover Commission). The Sierra Club is disappointed that these closures remain in the budget. State parks play a role in education, recreation, and physical health for millions of California children and adults. They also support the state’s tourism industry and local and regional business. Closing parks will cost the state more than keeping them open, but the governor and his Department of Finance refuse to budge. 

State parks would have been a smart investment for the funds the governor is proposing to lend to the General Fund from the Motor Vehicle Account. Every dollar invested in state parks more than doubles its value to the state’s economy.

The Department of Toxic Substance Control will lose funding for nearly 84 staff. Another 52 positions will be shifted from other programs within the department to focus on consumer-products work driven by the evolving Green Chemistry effort.

Californians shouldn’t have to wonder how much poison they are exposed to each day. The Department of Toxic Substance Control is one entity that helps identify and reduce Californians’ exposure to toxics. We are alarmed by the number of positions the governor is proposing to cut from a department that in recent years hasn’t been able to keep up with demand for its services.

New funding will be developed to support Timber Harvest Plans. Logging companies must produce these plans to ensure that they minimize the environmental impacts of their logging, and various state agencies must review and monitor them. Private forest lands provide vital services for society—habitat for wildlife, collection areas for snowpack and water, soil and hillside stabilization. Californians rely upon THPs to make sure that these services aren’t wiped out by reckless logging. The agencies that review and enforce the THPs have been understaffed and need new funding. We look forward to seeing details about the governor’s proposal.

Caltrans’ Aviation Division “recommends prohibiting group recreational uses” so close to this runway. “In general, society gives special attention to protection of children. Special consideration should be given to facilities that cater to children such as recreation and sports facilities.”

It also threatens sensitive habitat for the endangered California clapper rail and other species in the Gallinas Creek watershed including the salt-marsh harvest mouse, black rail, and steelhead trout.

WhatYouCanDo

Come speak up against this proposal at the Planning Commission’s hearing on Tue., May 29, at 7 pm at San Rafael City Hall, 1400 Fifth Ave.

For more information see www.gallinaswatershed.org/stop-the-airport-expansion-and-save-the-clapper-rail.html or contact Mary Hanley at maryinmarin@comcast.net.

Sign an on-line petition at action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9687.

San Francisco homeowners and businesses have used the GoSolarSF incentive to install thousands of solar panels across the city, hiring local companies such as Luminalt which recruit graduates of San Francisco's green-job programs.

San Francisco’s phenomenally successful GoSolarSF program faces budget pressures that could cripple it or even lead to its complete elimination.

In 2007, before GoSolarSF was started, San Francisco ranked last among the nine Bay Area counties in solar panels installed per resident. The Sierra Club joined a diverse group of policy makers, environmentalists, and environmental-justice advocates who came up with a plan to increase the amount of solar on local rooftops.

The result was GoSolarSF, a San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) incentive program that provides financial assistance for homeowners, businesses, and non-profits to install solar panels. The program has supported installation of over five megawatts of solar power, more than quadrupling the amount of solar in San Francisco and boosting the city from last to first in Bay Area solar per household. It has also fostered the creation of hundreds of jobs, including at least 82 for economically disadvantaged San Franciscans. Budget cuts, however, threaten the program’s progress.

For the past five years the San Francisco Solar Task Force, chaired by assessor-recorder Phil Ting and made up of Sierra Club representatives, SFPUC staff, and local solar companies, has sought to maintain a consistent yearly $5 million of GoSolarSF funding. From July 2008 through June 2011, while GoSolarSF was fully funded, it averaged nearly 500 new solar installations per year.

For the 2011-2012 fiscal year, however, the SFPUC was forced to cut GoSolarSF funding to $3 million to address maintenance needs of the city’s municipal electricity system. As a result, just a few over 250 installations were financed, and all incentive money dried up three months before the end of the budget cycle.

Prospects for the next two years are even worse. Further budget shortfalls find GoSolarSF proposed to receive only $2 million per year from July 2012 – July 2014, forcing Solar Task Force members and the SFPUC to come together to craft solutions to ensure the program’s survival. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will approve a 2012-2013 budget in June, and the Task Force and SFPUC are working together to identify potential revenue sources to make up the $3 million shortfall.

We are also studying whether modified incentive levels could leverage limited funding for more installations and a full twelve months of service. Under the program, for example, some solar installations have been free; would such households still go solar if their system were not free but discounted? In addition, green-jobs advocates are re-examining how the environmental community can partner with organized labor to ensure sustainable working conditions, wages, and benefits for workers on GoSolarSF installations.

Even if these patchwork solutions throw GoSolarSF a lifeline for another year, the program may not survive a further year of funding at the $2 million level.

Josh Arce, Executive Committee, Sierra Club Bay Chapter

David Nesmith.

In January, former Sierra Club Bay Chapter conservation staffperson David Nesmith, better known as Chicken, suffered a massive stroke.

Two months ago Chicken set a goal that he would testify at the East Bay Municipal Utility District April 24 Board meeting. On the agenda was a vote to reverse the EBMUD plan to raise Pardee Dam, which would have destroyed two miles of the Mokelumne River (see previous article). This was the culmination of years of his work, along with Pete Bell and Katherine Evatt of the Foothill Conservancy and others, to convince the Board that it is good common sense to protect a live river. At this meeting, the Board was going to vote to save a river. Chicken had to be there.

How did he convince them, you ask? He took them on river trips every year on the Mokelumne, introducing them to the wonders and excitement of that living river. He took some of them on other rivers, too. He also attended every local community input meeting, met boardmembers individually for coffee or breakfast, and organized such a large attendance at a hearing that the Board had to find a bigger venue, something which had never happened before. And there was also a successful lawsuit filed by his buddies at Foothill Conservancy, Friends of the River, and California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

The Board meeting was the first time since his stroke that he had been back in his working world. It sure was nice to see him out of sweats and into a collared shirt, trousers, and his usual vest! He looked quite fine, indeed! 

As soon as we arrived in the lobby of the elegant EBMUD building, he became the center point of a fluttering flock of excited staff and friends. As he rolled along, the flock moved with him.

We entered the boardroom with its gleaming wood-paneled walls, rows of soft chairs for the audience, wall-sized screen behind the elevated dais, and the names of the elected officials featured on signs along the dais.

The meeting began and proceeded through its agenda, and then it was time for testimony on the resolution. It was time for David Nesmith to speak. I rolled him down the aisle to the podium, and he stood up tall. He read the speech he wrote and had practiced in speech therapy, remembering to pause between sentences, to modulate his voice, to slow down, to project his breath from his belly through his vocal chords (half of which don’t work properly). 

He said to the Board:

“Good afternoon, Chairman John and members of the Board:

“Due to my stroke, my voice is softer than it used to be. If you have trouble understanding me, please tell me to speak up. 

“I want to thank ALL the members of this Board for changing your decision. It is unprecedented for this Board to actually save a river. I have never known any other water Board to save a river. YOU decided to save a river. Thank you so much.

“Think of all the fish and the riparian plants and animals. It’s a beautiful and complex ecosystem. You have saved two miles of a river… its trees, flowers, frogs, insects, birds, snakes, and–rafters.

“There’s nobody that could have done it like you did. You’ve made a great decision.

“The rivers are so damaged in California. We all love rivers. We all fight for rivers.

“Thank you.”

The boardmembers were riveted. When he had finished, John, the Republican chair of the Board, bounced up, emphatically slapping his palms together to lead a standing ovation for our David Nesmith. 

And then they voted 7 – 0 to save the Mokelumne River!

After the meeting, Chicken rolled up to the dais, stood up, and supporting himself on it, made his way along it, speaking to each boardmember. Several said that they were very moved by his speech. Another said, “This vote is a testament to you, David.” Several talked about how wonderful it was that he took them on the river. Meanwhile, Chicken was busy organizing their next river trip.

Staff came up to tell me, “We really love this guy.” Everyone looked at him with such deep respect and affection. I was awed. I mean, he supported an expensive lawsuit against them! He created problems for them! And–he introduced them to the river. Meanwhile, he managed to keep relationships intact. The fight was not personal. Amazing!

I asked him how he kept going through the many setbacks of this fight. “Because it was a common-sense decision. I knew that, eventually, it was going to go the right way.” 

May he experience such calm determination and optimism now in his fight for recovery

Annie Prutzman

Friends have organized a fundraiser on Mon., June 11, at the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse, to help pay for Chicken’s health services. It will feature Maria Muldaur, Laurie Lewis, and the Midnight Ramblers. For more information on this event see http://www.freightandsalvage.org/david-nesmith-benefit-show-laurie-lewis-midnite-ramblers-other-special-guests.

Photo by Melissa Robertson.

Help make it easier for people to legally sell or trade produce grown in Berkeley’s residential yards.

Currently, this extremely low-level economic activity–delivering a basket weekly to a few neighbors in walking distance, in exchange for a fee–requires a use permit costing around $3,000.

The Sierra Club and Berkeley Councilmember Jesse Arreguin are strongly in favor of the “Edible Gardens” proposal coming before the Planning Commission on May 16. This proposal would simplify the currently onerous permitting process for the sale or trade of produce grown in Berkeley’s residential yards. If passed, it would exempt sales of “Non-Processed Edibles” grown or raised in Berkeley residential gardens from any permitting requirements whatsoever or require only the most minimal level of permitting, so long as certain parameters are respected.

WhatYouCanDo

The Berkeley Planning Commission will be taking up this item on Wed., May 16. To show the commission that you support the Edible Gardens proposal, click here.

Also come to the Planning Commission meeting in person at 7 pm on Wed., May 16, in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. in Berkeley.

Redbud Canyon.

Earlier this week, Reps. Mike Thompson, John Garamendi, and Lynn Woolsey introduced the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area Act (H.R. 5545). This bill will secure permanent protection of much of the public lands in the Berryessa Snow Mountain region (see May-June 2008 Yodeler, page 13)

The Berryessa Snow Mountain region is rich in natural wonders and loaded with recreational opportunities. Rep. Thompson described this area as a “unique national treasure, and we have a responsibility to preserve it for our kids and grandkids. Designating the region as a National Conservation Area will preserve the land, help our local economies, and protect a wide variety of plants and animals. This is the right way forward for the region and our communities.” 

There is still work to do to make sure that the Berryessa Snow Mountain region is permanently protected, but this bill brings us one step closer. Please send your thanks to Reps. Thompson, Garamendi, and Woolsey. If you live in one of their districts, you can contact them through https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=8729.