Napa Bike Ride

At the beginning of Labor Day weekend, Care, her friend Ruth, and Jon rode the Napa Valley Vine Trail from Napa to Yountville and had a nice lunch at the R+D Kitchen.

Chicken Shack Fire Road and Ponti Trail Hike

Jon did a loop hike on the Chicken Shack Fire Road and the Ponti Trail in the Pachco Valley Open Space Preserve. The Ponti Trail is newly constructed for mountain biking (hiking is OK too). There were great views of Pacheco Valle, Novato, and Marinwood.

Mt. Tamelpias hike to the abandoned Mill Valley Air Force Station

At the end of September, Jon hiked a Mt. Tamelpias loop on the Simmons, Protrero, and Arturo Trails. This was a continuation of a series of hikes from the Rock Springs trailhead that started last month. We had the first rain overnight so the trails were damp and the woods were cool. Very nice. I did not see anyone in the whole 5.4 mile hike. The hike went through the abandoned Mill Valley Air Force Station, a cold-war era radar facility. It is still used by the FAA (and the Air Force) as a radar facility for Oakland Center and Norcal Approach but I did not realize you could get onto the base - but you can. The trail runs through it and it is mostly abandoned foundations. It has the most spectacular 360 view in the bay area.

In researching the base, I found several short films by Gary Yost, who has some connections to Autodesk. There is quite a story about the base and attempts to restore it to its natural state. Gary's videos below tell the story.