Posts Tagged ‘mount’

How to Keep Up With the Olympics in San Francisco if You Can’t Watch the NBC

Friday, February 12th, 2010

The Winter Olympics are going to get going tomorrow after tonight’s ceremony, but San Francisco doesn’t have an NBC affiliate so there you go. (I think the closest city of license for NBC is Fun Jose or Fresno or someplace Down South.) Here’s the rule – if you can’t see Mount San Bruno from your residence, chances are your rabbit ears won’t either.

All right then, you can always keep up at nbcolympics.com, and at the same time get your fill of ads for WalMart and the 2010 Census. 

Or, alternatively, you can check out the less spammy website of the United State Olympic Committee complete with all the Web 2.0 connections you kids crave.  

Your choice.

via Robert Sanzalone

Never Walk the Stairs to the Top of Sutro Tower – Just Take the Elevator

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Like these guys.

It would take forever to make it up the stairs to the top of controversial landmark Sutro Tower, so a swaying elevator car is the preferred method.  

Click to expand to get a closer look at a sunnier, more colorful San Francisco:

Take the tour.

Know Your Russian Acrobatic Yak Aircraft Above San Francisco

Monday, January 4th, 2010

This Russian-made Yak-50 acrobatic airplane used to be seen all over the skies of the San Francisco Bay Area – buzzing Mount Tam in Marin County, checking out anti-abortion rallies along San Francisco’s waterfront, that kind of thing.

But here’s your take-away, babe: These things had a working life of just 50 hours back in Mother Russia, as the stress of all them 9G loop de loops and whatnot led to bad things, such as “main spar collapse.” Ouch.

Anyway, looks like fun:

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Happy trails

Is That What You All Call Snow, Bay Area? Nothing Beats the Winter of Ought-Two for Snow

Monday, December 7th, 2009

If it’s colder than normal this AM and there’s some white stuff on the ground, well then I guess you could say it snowed in the San Francisco Bay Area. But back before the global warming the climate change, back in 2002, we had SNOW, baby.

As here, in ought-two up in Marin County on Mount Tamalpais, when I was out prospecting for gold with my donkey and/or on my Trek 8000 mountain bike (born 1991, Waterloo Wisconsin, died 2006, Civic Center, San Francisco). This is what it looked like in the afternoon ’til the rain melted everything.

Click to expand, why not? Heading to the East Peak with the Richmond San Rafael Bridge below:

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Now that was snow, the most we’ve had since 1976.

So, nothing after 1976 has beaten 2002 for snow in the bay area. (I think.)

Stay warm!

San Francisco is a Shining City Behind a Hill, When Seen from Marin County

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

As seen from Mount Tam.

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Why are all the buildings on that side of the Golden Gate and not this one?

The Cloud City of San Francisco, as Seen From Marin County

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Marin County is close, but oh so far away.

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Our New and Improved Sutro Tower Now Has New and Improved Digital Broadcasts

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Not that you’d really be able to tell, though. Sutro Tower Inc. has just finished a project that had some of the digital TV broadcast antennas (not “antennae” – that plural term is only used for bugs in our silly English language) gaining a higher altitude.

Not much howver, maybe a seven-percent increase, max. Does that make a big difference? No, not for most people, but at least STI is trying.

Here’s the antenna of KPIX-TV (OMG, that’s the home of Eye on Blogs – big ups, Brittney Gilbert!) a way up top, like 1700 feet above sea level. Now Channel 5 is as high as possible:

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The Future is Now, and what’s labeled “CURRENT” is history:

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From this:

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To this:

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Well, they were still wrapping the KPIX, KRON, KTVU antenna assembly, but you get the idea.

So it looks like we’re all set with the Great Digital TV Conversion of 2009. As long as Sutro Tower doesn’t get hit by a shooting star….

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…we’ll be all right.

Is Rec & Parks Spraying Herbicides on Twin Peaks this Month? You Bet

Monday, November 16th, 2009

This is what a Notice of Pesticide* Application looks like – it’s from our oddly-named San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. They’re spraying herbicides, like Roundup ProDry from Monsanto and Garlon 4 Ultra from Dow, on 15 hilly acres up there, right above the Midtown Terrace. That’s what Rec and Park is doing this month.

Why? Well, why not?

Targeted for extermination are Cotoneaster, Pittosporum, and Arctotheca calendula. See?

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Maybe it’s that stimulus money they’re spending.

Now, while the impoverished R&P is doing that, they’re also sprucing up, wait for it, the HQ building for the R&P.

See?

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Maybe it’s that stimulus money they’re spending.

Oh well.

*Or “herbicide” –  sometimes people call herbicides “herbicides” instead of pesticides. Sometimes.

Marin County’s Hill 88: A Wild Ghost Town in the Sky, and Former Home to Nuclear Bombs

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

This is the view from San Francisco over the Golden Gate – can you see the defunct buildings of Hill 88 in front of the East Peak of Mount Tamalpais? Those buildings were the eyes and ears of SF-88, southern Marin’s very own Nike Hercules missile complex.

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The actual nuclear warheads and missiles were stored at another facility down the hill – you can visit that place Wednesday through Saturday.

What’s shown in this photo above is the radar station part of the base, on the summit, where they had German shepherd guard dogs, machine guns, the whole magilla until the 1970’s. San Francisco also had a similar setup back in the day using the Presidio and Mount Sutro, but that was the smaller, non-nuclear Nike Ajax system and there’s really nothing left to visit anymore.

But in Marin, you can climb up to the hilltop facility of SF-88 whenever you want - you’ll get nice views and you’ll have a chance to see the graffiti.

Come visit Marin’s Wild Ghost Town in the Sky.

San Francisco’s Very Own Blair Witch Forest – the Spooky Interior Park Belt

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

If you ever want to feel suddenly transported away from the City, you should head on up to Medical Center Way (aka Upper Service Road) and then venture into the spooky Interior Park Belt.

It’s just up from where Jerry Brown raises money and just down the hill from where the old SF-89C Nike missile control center used to be, up on Mount Sutro.

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Mind the poison oak.

If you search the Flickr this arresting photo is the first result – but of course putting Interior Park Belt in quote marks narrows things down considerably.

Speaking of Flickr, be on the lookout for Flickers.

See you out there…