Tag: Big Sur

Photo Sunday, 10/15/17

This little history lesson started because Janet (Sommerville) Hardisty asked me to put her in contact with Sylvia Deen Trotter Anderson, and thus the exchanges began, and both ladies were gracious enough to keep me in the conversation so I could learn some local history and share in the photographs.

A couple of photos from the 50-60’s from Sylvia Deen (Trotter) Anderson’s collection:

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The people in the photo below are Janet Sommerville’s parents, and Sylvia Trotter Anderson’s parents, Walter Trotter and wife Guelda [gwel-dah] (Fenton) Trotter.  Janet’s mother, Betty is the one on the right. The two on the left, I believe are Walter Trotter and the gal in the middle of Janet’s dad and Trotter is Janet McChesney. Please correct me if I  am wrong, ladies.😘

From Janet: “The lady sitting by your dad is Janet McChesney, they lived at the main house at the Forest Service Station, as Doug/Mac was head in Big Sur at that time, so this would of had to been anywhere from sometime in the 50’s to 1961 as the girls (Kathy, Nancy, & Maryjane) moved away before Capt. Cooper opened up on the hill in 1962. The other lady seems familiar, but I’m not really sure??”

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A Couple more – this one of the classroom, Sylvia found from a collection at the University of Wisconsin, of all places:

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“Up close with back to camera is Miss Morrisay. Then the girl on the right with hair band is cousin Susan/Susie Brazil, almost looks like back of head of Kip Hopkins. Tal Bradford is the fellow with fingers under his nose I think. Blonde in the middle almost looks like a Morganwrath, but don’t think it is. I have school photos with some of these kids in it, so they were a year ahead of me, maybe a Warren and almost looks like Billy Royer at the far right hand under chin.” (Description by Sylvia)

From Janet: “Lets see, I think those are David Lindley’s ears next to Susie (Kaye Short’s grandson), then we have Lincoln Curtis in front row by Miss Morrisay, Ron Warren, then we move over to Blonde, which is Jeanette Ramsdell,
next to her is I think Raymond Niemeyer, can’t remember the guys names on the right, but I remember them(Bruce?). And like you said, Tal, and then I think Lorna something and maybe Kate Healey’s head, and no idea on the other.”

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The above is from the University of Wisconsin archives. It is the little red school house. It sat south of MAF approximately where the CT housing is now.

From Sylvia’s Collection:

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“I did have this one however….. These two girls in detail…Their mother was Rowena (Davis) Kelly-Lee our school teacher. The elder/taller girl is Dorothy Kelly and the younger/smaller one is Rowena “Punky” Kelly. Punky, I’m sure you will recall drowned at Post’s area in Jul of 1964. I was 8 and you probably 10-11. Cousin Judy Trotter-Weidman was best friends with Punky and about aged 12. She had a hard time dealing with Punky’s passing.
This is the backside of the old Pfeiffer School if memory serves me as I was in the small room for the 1st and 2nd graders with Mrs. Kelly and you “older students”- ha-ha were with Miss Morrisey. We could go out that door right to the play area.”

Below,  “Sorry another bad photo, but this one I did remember a bit more about! L-R
Leigh Hartman Toldi, ME Sylvia, in back ?Char Piaz, Janie Curtis, then maybe Krista Mackowski, Collett Mason [french sounding]and Janet Sommerville. Found the program that went with this awhile back as well. Hard to believe we has such stuff in Big Sur with such a wonder teacher, Lillie/Lily Selvig. Still have the costume that her son Dirk wore for one of the ballet plays as a joker. What a hoot!! Sylvia”

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Monterey County Visitors Bureau Response

Hi Kate

Thanks for sharing this feedback. And I’d also like to thank you for sharing with your followers the list of things we are doing to support responsible tourism in Big Sur (https://bigsurkate.blog/2017/07/21/monterey-co-visitors-bureau-outreach/). One of the main points of that list was to illustrate the wide range of ways we are trying to support the businesses in Big Sur and the people they employ – but do so in a way the emphasizes respect for the environment and the people who live in Big Sur.

As much as we are doing to maintain balance, there is always room for more ideas and collaboration. So appreciate your sharing this latest comment. Some feedback on that:

· Bixby Bridge – clearly we know people are going to take pictures. So much of our messaging is designed to encourage people to be safe and smart. To use proper parking/pull-outs and be cautious at all times… We’ve posted such messaging in our social channels, stress this with travelers who come to our Visitor Center and among other things on our website, we have a Dos & Don’ts page for Big Sur on our website that further elaborates on this.
· On the line of copy about “sleep under the stars” – this was vague so we made more specific and refer directly ‘sleep under the stars… at Fernwood Resorts’. This has been updated in our material.
· One of the comments in today’s post (https://bigsurkate.blog/2017/07/26/moco-visitors-bureaus-disconnect-with-big-sur/) was whether MCCVB was directing people – on purpose or inadvertently – to private property. We certainly do not do this, in fact, we ask travelers to be respectful specifically of private property. But we’ll look at our messaging to see how we can further emphasize.

Again, we appreciate your sharing the outreach we are doing with your followers as well as receiving critical comments so that we can address. In fact, we’ve gone to great lengths over the years – not just related to the road closure – to ensure we are not ‘disconnected with Big Sur’. But there is always opportunity for more and better connectivity. So please feel free to reach out to me directly anytime with any suggestions.

Given that Big Sur is one of the most iconic and beautiful places on Earth, we know people are going to travel to experience it. The question is how can we make them more respectful tourists – that is a top priority.

Please let me know of any further questions/suggestions/ideas. We’ll take all the collaboration we can get…

Many thanks

Rob O’Keefe

Thanks, Rob for being so receptive. Now, if we could just find ways to get the “on the ground funding” we need for porta potties, trash collection, and patrolling to prevent campfires and illegal camping. Anything you can do in that regard, we would be very appreciative of, because no matter how much educating we try to do, it will not reach probably more than 1/2 the people it needs to reach. Of the 4000 people a day who contact you, how can we know how many don’t bother?

What do Venice, Italy & Big Sur, CA have in common?

Several people over the weekend brought my attention to an article in the Guardian, which I usually read in any event. This article, however, is not about the politics I usually read, it is about how tourism is destroying Venice, Italy.

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Here is the link to that article: Guardian Article

To entice you to read it, here are a few tidbits:

“Earlier this month an estimated 2,000 Venetians marched against a tourism industry they argue has eroded their quality of life, that is damaging the environment and driving residents away: Venice’s population has fallen from about 175,000 in the post-second world war years to 55,000 today.”

Here in Big Sur, the tourist industry and media accounts are still referring to the same “3 million visitors a year” model that they were using in 1985 when I first moved here. No update on the number of visitors Big Sur is expected to entertain has been provided in the 32 years I have lived here, and it has tripled, quadrupled, or more, in my  conservative estimation, during that time. If Nepenthe is serving 1000 meals a day in normal years, as has been claimed in all the recent news articles, then every single one of the  3 million people coming to Big Sur plus a 1/2 million more, are stopping at that establishment each year, and we know that while Nepenthe is an icon, everyone does not stop there. In fact, most do not.

“… Residents were hoping that Unesco would send a strong signal to the authorities by following through with a threat to place the world heritage site on its endangered list. Instead, the organisation recently granted the city another year to come up with measures to protect its monuments and preserve its fragile environment.

‘It feels as if we’re at a point of no return because it’s already out of control,’ said Beltrame. He would like tourist numbers to be limited, while focusing on improving the quality and promoting the city as a hub for scientific and maritime research.”

Here, we already have the Aquarium, the Marine Sanctuary, and maritime research, and more research on the fragility of our environment, the endangered species that call Big Sur home is needed.

Has the degradation of the experience of Big Sur for locals and tourists alike reached the point of no return here, as well? If we were a UNESCO site,  would we be put on their endangered list?

Come to the Big Sur Multi-Agency Advisory Council’s next meeting on August 11th, 2017 and share in the conversation. Details and Agenda will be posted when made available.

Traffic Issues are back, 7/3/17

5 pm update – from a follower: “today was ugly, be aware and on the lookout, sobranes, garrapatta, rocky creek & bixby all way overcrowded and people parking in the highway”

Due, at least in part,  to an aggressive campaign by the Monterey Visitors and Convention Bureau, the traffic issues we have been without are back with a vengeance. And this is just since the trail opened to the public on Saturday. Imagine what is coming when Paul’s Slide opens this month.  Fire danger, anyone? What is the plan? Or *IS* there a plan?

At Point Lobos: 11:26 AM 1 [1] 20 VEHS PARKED ILLEGALLY

At Soberanes Point: 12:00 PM 1 [1] 3 VEHS PART 1125 [blocking roadway]

And at Hurricane Point and Bixby Bridge:
11:08 AM 4 [21] Incident Re-opened: STATE PARKS HAD RPT OF NAILS BEING DELIBERATLY DROPPED ON BIXBY BRIDGE
8:22 AM 3 [18] A27-022 22 1097 THE AREA [10-97 arrived at scene]
7:46 AM 2 [3] RP DOES NOT NEED ASSIST FOR HIS VEH ( 12 GRY NISS PATHFINDER)
7:46 AM 1 [2] RP ADV ON THE SHOULDER AND ON THE EDGE OF THE ROAD

And a friend in town stated that at noon, there was an 8-mile backup of cars on Highway One.

And this was Garapatta yesterday. (Photo by Martha Diehl)

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Big Sur State Park Opening & Highway Closure Map

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Big Sur Shuttle Service

A new service will be instituted beginning July 1st, which will coincide with the opening of the State Park. The website explains what the service offers. Interestingly, only those utilizing the shuttle, or campers in the State Park, will have access to the TapHouse Trail, which the shuttle service calls the Community Trail. Also the service is providing educational information in the form of pamphlets and story-telling. This could be an interesting experiment on how to minimize some of the impact of the overuse of tourists in our area after the bridge is open. It will have several months of a sort-of “trial” run to see how this works. It could easily be part of the solution, which is always good to hear. Please go to their website to check it out:

Big Sur Shuttle Service

And for current State Park Information, check out this website:

Pfeiffer State Park

Photos – bird & flowers

I saw these last week on my travels. The bird might be a peregrine falcon (I am never sure of my bird IDS) and the two flowers. The pink one looks like a wine cup, which is in the clarkia family, but the color is not as deep maroon, as is usual. The yellow one I have never seen before and neither my California nor my Monterey Wildflower books have this one,  but finally found it in my North American wildflowers book. No leaves at all, just the stalk, that I could see. It is a Golden Star or Bloomeria crocea in the Lily family.

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Someone suggested an immature red-tailed hawk, but I am not sure, either, given the lack of white feathers on the legs. As I said,  I am rarely confident in my bird IDs, Here is one for comparison.

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Sprinkles & Lightning

1pm – update, the lightning has stopped. I hope it doesn’t come back…

June 22, 2008, lightning started a multitude of fires state wide. Ours was the Gallery Fire which morphed into the Basin. It was this fire that prompted this blog.

I am hearing thunder today, experiencing the lightest of sprinkles, and a muggy heavy heat I have not experienced since Hawaii, Zanzibar, and other tropical locales. The dogs are freaking over the thunder, as they always do. The coast is blanketed in fog down here. Dry lightning is not a good thing for us, as dry as we are, particularly up here in the hills.  Keep vigilant, and keep an eye out. We are all look-outs, now.

Guests who don’t know better

These two shots were taken yesterday by Tony Shelfo. He stopped and talked to the one couple. Yes,  that is the spot of the Fergusson Fire last week. And yes, they were setting up camp on a road upon which camping is not allowed. On the other, we need to send ALL smokers to the military where they will be taught to field stip their cigarette butts and pocket the filters.

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It is a very difficult situation. We – those of us who live here – have been on high alert for fires, floods, road closures, etc. for coming up on a year. Temperatures are unbelievable (90 inside my house as I type this at 8 pm last night) and tempers always flare with the heat. It is exhausting to live in this state, worried about the next careless, clueless, or uncaring visitor to come along. Just planning and executing a town run for supplies is exhausting. Add to it, the tension of knowing our world is basically “cut off” and yet visitors are coming here thinking that the rules or even that the need for rules does not apply to them. There is a complete and utter disconnect between some of our visitors and any consciousness at all as to what we have been thru and what we are going through. It is hard, if not impossible, to welcome visitors right now. We are too fragile, the land is too fragile, and our visitors are so uncaring in the general.

Some of you will read this and will honor what I have written and will trod gently and be mindful. Others will come here in a big truck pulling an even bigger trailer going down Nacimiento putting others and yourself in danger, as Tony experienced yesterday,  completely careless, clueless, and uncaring, about anyone but yourself. The sad thing is, you will not even be aware of what you are doing, and why we won’t welcome you. I can only hope you don’t damage us, this land, or even yourself. May Big Sur work its spiritual magic on you causing you to WAKE UP from your mindless sleep before you further damage her.

Highway One Closure update, 6/12/17 & Thursday Convoy

Mud Creek remains completely closed. Paul’s Slide continues as it has been, opening times above in the “sticky” permanent post above. Aerial of Mud Creek by Madonna Construction:

PM 8.9 Mud Creek Aerial--John Madonna 6.8.17

 

Convoy times for 6/15/17:

*Update #6*
CALTRANS ANNOUNCES NEXT CONVOY TO PFEIFFER CANYON BRIDGE—LONG DELAYS EXPECTED

MONTEREY COUNTY – Caltrans will continue the process of delivering construction equipment and materials to the site of the demolished Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge on State Route 1 via Nacimiento-Fergusson Road from US Highway 101 on Thursday, June 15. Some equipment will begin moving out one piece at a time, throughout the week.

These convoys will be escorted by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and will include intermittent closures of Nacimiento-Fergusson Road on Thursday, June 15 from 8 am until 7 pm. Motorists wishing to travel east/west in the morning must do so before the first convoy begins. On Thursday, motorists will encounter delays during the movement of these four convoys westbound from 8 am to 10 am and 2 pm to 4 pm and eastbound from 11 am to 1 pm and from 5 pm to 7 pm. All vehicles must not exceed 30 feet in length and a weight of 15 tons.

The Thursday convoy again will include rock, sand, cement and reinforcing steel. Future convoys will include more of the same, in general, materials and equipment to construct the abutment support and overall construction of the new Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge (PM 45.52).