The Grange Presents: BIG SUR: THE WAY IT WAS Saturday August 23rd Potluck 4pm, Film 6pm
Join us for a Potluck and viewing of the 1972 documentary Big Sur: The Way It Was. This film is the first documentary made of Big Sur, its natural beauty, artistic community, and counterculture ways. It includes interviews with writers, artists and intellectuals, such as Henry Miller, Eric Barker, Emil White, Harry Dick Ross, Emile Norman, as well as hippies, musicians, bikers, hitchhikers, tourists and your every-day rugged individualists who call Big Sur home. It was filmed and produced by Robert Blaisdell, a native filmmaker of the Monterey Peninsula, who shot the footage of Big Sur and its inhabitants throughout the 1960s. https://www.bigsurstories.com/big-sur-the-way-it-was-1
The Way It Was was first released in 1995 on VHS and later on DVD before it disappeared from view. Now thirty years after its debut, the 55 year old film is available again thanks to the efforts of Bob Franco, a Pacific Grove filmmaker who assisted in the restoration of the 1972 documentary. Bob will join us to share the film, and will be available afterwards to discuss his current project. Bob’s is collecting stories from and about local artists and residents regarding their work and life experience in Big Sur as part of his Big Sur Stories project: https://www.bigsurstories.com/
I took this off my back deck during the Basin Fire (2008). Barbara Woyt and I had a front row seat to this sight. One rarely gets to see this point of view outside of from another flying machine.
MONTEREY COUNTY – Repairs at Regent’s Slide, which closed Highway 1 on February 9, 2024, continue to advance with slope stabilization efforts contributing to sustained excavation activity.
Full scale excavation work has continued at Regent’s Slide since mid-July with crews able to sustain production in part due to the effectiveness of the installation of thousands of shear dowels. Averaging 60 ft. in length, these steel bars are being drilled and grouted into the cut slope above the active work area.
Data from an array of monitoring equipment has confirmed that the shear dowels are having the intended effect of mitigating further slide activity which has been a characteristic feature of repairs at Regent’s Slide. As the top-down excavation advances, crews will continue to install shear dowels in the cut slope behind them, providing immediate and long-term reinforcement of the slope. Since mid-July, crews have installed an additional 1,500 dowels, bringing the overall total number of installed shear dowels to 3,500.
Excavation work is advancing with the combined use of both conventional and remote-controlled equipment. The remote-controlled equipment, including two large bulldozers and one excavator, remain an integral component to the advancement of excavation and removal of slide material. Even as seasonal patchy coastal fog has intermittently cut into full production, crews continue to work seven days a week and extended hours on these repair efforts.
Caltrans remains in a position to announce a refreshed date for the full reopening of Highway 1 at Regent’s Slide in mid-September.
Big Sur Coast Remains Accessible and Open
Visitors can access more than 100 miles of Highway 1 between Cambria and Carmel, except for the 6.8-mile segment one mile south of the Esalen Institute to two miles north of Lucia.
Travelers from Northern California can still access historic bridges, waterfalls, restaurants, and lodging amenities along the Big Sur coast. Travelers from Southern California can reach the endearing communities of Lucia, Gorda, Treebones, Ragged Point, San Simeon, and Cambria via Highway 1.
Road information and updates can also be found on Caltrans District 5 Social Media platforms: X/Twitter at: @CaltransD5, Facebook at: Caltrans Central Coast (District 5) and Instagram at: Caltrans_D5.
For more information about transportation projects and funding, visit: Build.ca.gov.
Thousands of shear dowels have been grouted and drilled into the cut slope above the excavation work area providing immediate and long-term reinforcement of the slope.
Oct 23, 2024 #geology#pacificcoasthighway#highway1California’s Pacific Coast Highway is one of the world’s most iconic drives. But parts of it collapse into the ocean almost every year. Why does this road keep failing? And is there a solution? FEATURING: Gary Griggs, Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, UC Santa Cruz READ MORE:
#pacificcoasthighway#highway1#geology @ucsantacruz CHAPTERS:00:00 Highway 1 keeps collapsing 00:32 Highway 1’s history 01:14 The section most prone to collapse 01:55 Why is Big Sur so unstable? 02:48 Why is the highway becoming more precarious? 03:50 What can we do to stop this?
It’s starting to burn into the Garcia wilderness where there is no [prior] documented fire. So it’s going to be a long haul along with the new one in LA.
Here are some photos for you taken on the northern end near avenales at the headwaters of the Salians river. La Panza mts. And a nite shot from Monday.
All credit to Mark Ruggiero, except the last one which is credited to the Chumash Fire Department.
Both fires are being reported on by https://watchduty.org or using their app for free.
For Panoche this morning’s report:
Firefighters are actively battling a rapidly moving vegetation fire in the Penoche Valley region of southeastern San Benito County. The fire is burning in light, flashy fuels and mixed brush, contributing to fast-moving fire behavior.
Firefighters worked through the night and successfully held the Panoche Fire at 330 acres with 10% containment. Day shift crews are focused on keeping the fire within its current footprint and increasing containment. Additional resources and updates can be found on our Linktree: https://linktr.ee/CAL_FIRE_BEU
As a reporter for Watch Duty for the last 3 years or so, I always recommend Watch Duty to everyone I know. It was nice to see Rayner from Fire Adapted Big Sur (a program of Community Association of Big Sur) send out this information to his email list. For those of you who may have missed this, by either FABS or me, here it is with good instructions on how to install and use it. BTW, we have been expanding westward and are almost to the Mississippi River, and after what happened in Texas are looking to not just expand our coverage of wildfire, but also of other natural disasters. It has always been Watch Duty’s goal to assist first responders in getting the information out to our communities so that we can help save lives. It is free for the basic service for your county and up to three others. For a ridiculously low yearly fee, other aspects of the service are opened up to you, such as flight patters so you can watch in real time the tankers and helicopters that are on a fire. The pro service is generally used by first responders agencies, counties, utilities, and other organizations responsible for emergencies. I hope you join us by downloading this free app. Bigsurkate
Dear Neighbors,
The Watch Duty app for your smartphone and tablet provides timely and critical wildfire alerts. There are many configuration options – here’s guidance for tailoring the app for notifications and to display the information that you want.
Respectfully – Rayner Watch Duty is a nonprofit-funded wildfire alert app designed to keep communities informed in real time about nearby fires. Staffed by a network of experienced fire reporters, dispatchers, and journalists, the app provides live updates on wildfire activity sourced from official scanner traffic, fire maps, and direct field observations. Unlike traditional alert systems that may lag, Watch Duty aims to deliver faster, more localized information about evacuations, containment, and changing conditions. It has become an essential tool for California residents in fire-prone areas. During the first two days of the Palisades and Eaton fires, ~1.4 million residents signed up to obtain safety and evacuation information from Watch Duty.
The app features an intuitive interface that displays wildfires on a map, with clickable icons providing detailed, timestamped updates. Residents can receive push notifications specifically for the County of Monterey, allowing them to stay ahead of developing threats. The app may be used for free. Optional annual Basic ($24.99) and Pro ($99.99) memberships provide additional features.
Here are step-by-step instructions for setting up Watch Duty on your Apple iOS or Google Android device (refer to app screenshots in photo):Download the Watch Duty app from the App Store or Google Play.Open the app, select the 3-bar Menu icon next to “Watch Duty” (upper-left screen). Select Settings > Notifications. Select Monterey County. Select Updates > All Notifications unless you wish to only receive a single notification about a local fire. Check the box adjacent to Include Silent Incidents if you wish to receive alerts about all local fires. Otherwise, you’ll receive alerts only once a fire has reached a certain severity threshold. You may optionally add additional counties.Select the Layers icon (upper-right screen). Street, Satellite, and Topographic map views are available. Select which features you wish to have displayed on the map (some features require paid membership): a. General – fire perimeters, satellite hotspots, flight tracker (fixed-and rotary-winged aircraft servicing the fire), power outages, live wildfire cameras b. Weather – weather stations, fire weather and red flag warnings, surface wind direction, air quality index (AQI) c. Professional – ownership & responsibility (federal, state, electrical utilities, private), critical infrastructure (electrical transmission lines, natural gas pipelines, radio repeaters), pre-planned evacuation zones.
