Month: June 2011

Photo contest winners

First place, and winner of a $50 gift certificate to River Inn is Bette Nelson, of Monterey with her photograph of the photographers at Pfeiffer Beach. I loved this one for its touch of whimsy. It so speaks to one of the reasons people come here. THANKS TO ALAN PERLMUTTER OF THE RIVER INN FOR THE DONATION OF THE GIFT CERTIFICATE!! And Bette, contact me about the gift certificate, and about Barbara Sparkhawk’s, of Hawk’s Perch Gallery next to the River Inn to carry prints of this photograph for sale. Congratulations, Bette!!
This is what the full photograph looks like:

Winner by Bette Nelson

And in second place is the heart of a stone by Joya Roy, who took this on a recent camping trip here. Again, the full photo:

1st runner up by Joya Roy

And in third place is the hummingbird bridge by Martha Diehl.

2nd runner-up by Martha Diehl

Congratulations to the winner! Thank you one and all for submitting your photographs and for voting on the winners. Great job. Another one in a couple months, before fire season gets in full swing, and I’ll announce it in the “Notices” post at the top of the blog. I’m going to keep it generic Big Sur, I think. That seems to work better than a seasons-theme does.

Again, thank you to Alan Perlmutter of the River Inn for the donation of the $50 gift certificate, and to Barbara Sparhawk of Hawk’s Perch Gallery for offering to show and sell the photograph in her galley.

Photo contest ends tonight!

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite photo for my new header for the next few months. Click here to view and vote: Photo Contest

Did someone mention ribbon cutting?

Photo sent by Charlie Hench, resident engineer, Cal-Trans

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony by Cal-Trans

I don’t know for sure when this was taken, as the mega-data says 1/1/1980, but I suspect yesterday.

Alder Creek officially open to all as of 6/9 at 3 pm

I got a call early this afternoon re the eminent official opening of Alder Creek at 3 pm this afternoon, just 5 days short of a whopping two months of closure. There are no restrictions at this time. The PIO released the information just moments ago, and so now I can share with my readers

I feel like there should be a ribbon cutting ceremony, or something. Break open the champagne. And this one was only 1/2 as long as the one at Hurricane Point a few years ago.

The Working Crew – Alder Clean-up, up close & personal

Rock Knocker got some great shots of the various crews finishing up the clean -up in preparation for opening the road. I am writing an article for the Cambrian on this process for next week, and will post here when submitted.

In the meantime, I selected 25 out of the 350 he brought me, but not sure I will have the patience or time to get all of those up, and will probably have to load some, and come back and load more, so keep coming. I’ll be posting more photos all evening! They all had a BBQ today to celebrate the ending of the almost two months of hard work to get this puppy open. Even the Deputy Director Steve Price showed up!

I am sure I speak for the entire community – north and south – when I thank all you men and women of Cal-Trans, Winsor of Cambria, and AIS of Santa Maria who brought and operated the Spyders, and everyone else who helped to keep this safe while the others worked. Blessings to all.

Playin' in the Dirt by Rock Knocker

Haulin' Dirt by Rock Knocker

Fill 'er up by Rock Knocker

John Duffy, CT Geologist & Scaling Instructor by Rock Knocker

Charlie Hench, CT resident engineer taking well-deserved break by Rock Knocker

Chicken Wire Crew (slope drapery) by Rock Knocker

Seeing Road bed, by Rock Knocker

Tim Winsor, of Winsor Construction in Cambria by Rock Knocker

Discussing the work by Rock Knocker

Charlie Hench and Steve Price by Rock Knocker

Steve Price and John Duffy

It’s Official. Alder Creek to open by Friday, 6/10/11

Just got the “official” word, although I had the scoop about the opening up yesterday here on my blog (see below), and I had it from very reliable sources, it is nice when it is official. I was confident this was not just another “rumor.” After 22 years down here, I know how to sort out the “rumors” – which may or may not be true, from the reliable information, which is not yet released through official sources. By the way the operative word is “BY” not “ON.”

Can’t tell you how happy I am. Rock Knocker and I, once we got the “unofficial” word, immediately planned a trip to Cambria for this Friday. Friday is our favorite day, anyway, as the Farmer’s Market is happening, and the weekend mood as settled into the town.

“Highway 1 at Alder Creek (Post Mile 7.5), 40 miles south of Big Sur, will
re-open by Friday, June 10, Caltrans officials announced today.

A devastating slide had closed the roadway completely in both directions to
all public, including motorized vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists since
April 14.

Caltrans wants to thank the affected communities for their patience and
especially wants to thank Windsor Construction for their efforts.”

Alder 6/3 by Cal-Trans

Unofficial Word on Alder Creek …

… might be open by end of week. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Could be really good news shortly. Stay tuned, and will post with an update as soon as it is “official.” Make sure and vote on your favorite photo in the post immediately following.

Photo Contest Finalists

This was by far the hardest contest to winnow down to only 10 of the best photos out of the eventual 54 I received. Some amazing work! They are in completely random order. There were a few I liked just as much as the ones below, but they would have completely lost their essence when cropped to header format. I will show some of those after the contest is over. For now, vote for your favorite. Only one vote, please, tough as it will be!

Photo #1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

Lest you all think I was slacking, I couldn’t get these up over the weekend, as I had storm-related emergencies up here. I’ll keep a link to this post on my first, sticky post “Notices” and keep voting open for a week, so all can enjoy.

Okay, as Dave points out, I screwed up, and there is no way to vote for #8. Please vote in the comment section, and I will tally those votes by hand. Sorry, photographer for #8. And today, Tuesday, I noted the poll disappeared completely! Serious gremlins at work up here! I’m looking into it, to see what happened, so if you see TWO polls, the one immediately below is the test poll, and the first one is the original poll. Please vote on the first, original poll, and ignore the one below, IF it shows up!!

Sneaky Sunday

Blue Skies and even some sun this morning had me thinking this winter-in-June storm was over … then I checked the NOAA forecast discussion. Never-the-less, I intend to use the hours I have to dry out what I can.

“THE LOW WILL FINALLY BEGIN TO MOVE EAST TO THE MONTEREY/SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY COAST LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. SHOWERS SHOULD INCREASE AS THE LOW MOVES CLOSER. ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS REMAIN A POSSIBILITY THIS EVENING WITH THE GOOD SURFACE HEATING AND INCREASINGLY COLDER AIR ALOFT AS THE LOW MOVES CLOSER PROVIDING MORE INSTABILITY.”

And here is a shot of the Hidden Waterfall. It is seasonal, so it is amazing that it is flowing this strongly in June – but then, this June is having an identity crisis.

Hidden Waterfall by Debbie Reed

*sigh*

Stormy Saturday

5:45 pm – ROCK/DIRT/MUD SLIDE AT MM 33 BLOCKING THE NB LANE NEAR ESALEN’S BACK GATE. WATCH OUT – IT IS MOVING!!

3:30 pm – unbelievably, there is a wildland fire on the other end of the Los Padres National Forest with structures threatened. Hard to believe as I sit here and listen to the wind and the rain pelt this mountain top!

3:00 pm – my neighbor just got back from work at Lucia, where there was not a single customer, to report his wind gauge recorded 82 mph winds. I am usually a bit higher, so 90 mph is not a bad guess. Still windy, but not that high! And the rain seems to have abated for now. He also reported there were lots of rocks coming down on the highway down here, so NOT a good day to be out and about.

12:45 pm – CHP reports rocks in the NB lane from Coast Gallery to Palo Colorado this am, but it appears to all be cleared. With this tremendous amount of rain in such a short period of time, rock and mud slides are highly likely, so drive carefully, and keep a “heads-up” if you need to be traveling Highway One this weekend.

I have brought back most of my weather links for the duration of this whopper of a storm there on the right under 2010-2011 La Niña links (the bitch). Thanks for bringing that to my attention, Barbara Ray.

I have gotten AT LEAST 2 inches, thus far, and there is no sign of lessening. The winds are horrific, hurricane force, but I can’t give you exact speed as my gauge is still inside. All I can say, is it is a nasty one, reminiscent of January. Yeah, it will cut down on the dust, delay the fire season, and cut down on the bug life, but at the moment, I feel as if I am in the midst of a hurricane! Oh, life in the wilds of Big Sur, eh? Hope you all are fairing better.

Here is a shot of the cyclone which is spinning over us. I’ll add more info throughout the day.

Cyclone, courtesy of Dave Allen

Here is the second one:

Cyclone 2 courtesy of Dave Allen (and NOAA)

At noon, NOAA is reporting 3″ in the last 24 hours in Big Sur, and over 5 and 1/2″ at Mining Ridge – so yeah, I’d say I got WAY over 2″! Lots of banging outside. I am not liking this at all!