Last week, 85-year-old Joe Shami completed his 600th week in a row riding his bike to the summit of 3,849-foot Mount Diablo.
Joe is one of a number of those who has stirred passions as a member of the “1% Club” from like-minded individuals and groups, plus those who want to join the club.
This is an unofficial club, of course. It started when a small group of us free-climbed Sawtooth Ridge in the Trinity Alps and trekked off-trail to Little South Fork Lake, which has no trails and is surrounded by towering mountain walls and an outlet creek with a high waterfall.
A guidebook writer said this was a trip for only “deranged souls,” and our club was born: “the 1% club for deranged souls.” Many of us are now proud members. Here are some recent inductions from hikers, cyclists and kayakers in the region:
Joe Shami, Mount Diablo Cyclists: He started the challenge of riding his bike to Diablo’s summit when he was 74, and since then, it has been “600 Sundays.” The key stretch of the climb spans 12.4 miles with an elevation gain of 3,680 feet. “For the past 11 years and 28 weeks, Joe has not missed a weekly ride to the summit, in rain, cold, heat, snow, wind,” said Al Kalin of the Mount Diablo Cyclists. Joe, a retired AT&T engineer, estimated he has more than 80,000 miles on his bike. “I ride my own tempo,” Joe said in a news release from Trek. “A lot of the time, I am just by myself. A few months ago, I added some smaller gears to the bike, because I am getting slower. But that’s OK.”
Bay Island Sagehens: Some graduates from Pomona College (hence, Sagehens) are on a mission to summit every island in San Francisco Bay. The group has summited Rat Rock, Red Rock, Angel Island, Treasure Island, Yerba Buena Island, Brooks Island, East Brother Island, Alcatraz, and others, said Fred Feller. “Rat Rock and Red Rock required ropes and a grappling hook,” Feller said. The book “The Islands of San Francisco Bay” says there are about a dozen significant islands in the bay, and 48 in the greater San Francisco Bay system.
Paddling with sharks: Field scout Giancarlo Thomae made national news for his videos of paddling amid great white sharks near Seacliff State Beach in Monterey Bay. There’s mostly logic in his passion. The biologist says that “juvenile great white sharks eat fish, not marine mammals, in deep water, then cruise inshore to rest and warm up in the shallower water, and thus are not threats” when he paddles amid them. But the day a seal-eating 17-footer swims under his kayak is a different story.
Keeping feet warm
“Thank you for your column entitled, ‘Embrace winter with 1 Percent Club,’” wrote Phil Cali. “Question: What do you recommend for footwear?” In a similar comment, Sue Gallagher added, “What ’bout your FEET????” And Mike Sprintz and several others asked what kind of boots I wear in the snow.
The answers vary according to conditions and time planned afield. For a day trek in ice-covered snow country, I wear my summer hikers, Merrells, strap on Yaktrax for the ice, with double-thick SmartWool socks, and it works fine. For longer, sustained periods into sub-zero, Arctic-like conditions, such as climbing Mount Shasta, I wear special-built climbing boots (with crampons for ice) that come with thermal liners and insoles. The idea, whether your feet or torso, is to create a self-contained shell that retains warmth regardless of the conditions.
Frozen tootsies
On one early-winter trip on the Pacific Crest Trail, my mentor, Ed “The Dunk” Dunckel, camped at 10,800-foot Leavitt Pass, in the central Sierra above Sonora Pass. This high-mountain saddle is a natural “venturi,” where the air speeds up (and gets colder) to pass from a canyon below and through a narrow slot on the Sierra crest. The Dunk hated cold feet, so before sleep, he put boiling water in three hot-water bottles and then placed them inside the bottom of his old sleeping bag next to his feet. It got so cold that night, with a light frosty snow pushed by a howling wind, that by dawn, all three of those hot-water bottles froze solid in his sleeping bag.
The bear question
Hetchy, Shasta, lions
As the year comes to a close, a number of stories reached conclusion, and another is on the watch list.
Hetch Hetchy: The
Shasta Lake: After years of behind-the-scenes planning,Congress formally shot downthe proposal to raise Shasta Dam by nearly 20 feet by refusing to fund it.
Mountain lions: In the past few years, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife quietly has been researching mountain lions to formulate a reliable statewide population estimate, believed to be much higher than previously imagined. In the coming months, that study likely will be
After a Christmas Day story appeared about a winter trek last week when we tracked and encountered a bear in snow country — with a few theories about why it wasn’t hibernating — Laura Pilewski, a wilderness winter ranger at 8,600 feet at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, sent the following email saying she and her husband Rob had a similar encounter:
“We returned (by cross-country ski) to the Tioga Pass area again this week to assess snow conditions and shuttle in some more supplies for the season. As we neared the ridge of Gaylor Peak on a windy but somewhat warm day, we were surprised to see a set of fresh bear tracks. So fresh, in fact, that the bear who had just made them was still nearby! It had just emerged from its shallow den and was no doubt equally as surprised to see us. After shaking the cobwebs off, it reluctantly decided to head up and over the saddle struggling through the powdery snow. Although it looked like quite the effort, it made good time and soon disappeared into the wind driven snow.”
Steepest hikes
Burma Road: Located at Mount Diablo, this qualifies as the steepest, sustained hike in the Bay Area for its 40% grade, estimated by some as 43%, that was described in a story last weekend. Several other butt-kicker climbs are worth consideration, say field scouts:
Mount Tam, Part 1: In Marin on the flank of Mount Tam, hike Stinson Beach to Matt Davis and Rock Springs, then on to the lesser-known 2,576-foot West Peak (with the radar dome), says field scout Don Dianda. “Maybe not as steep as Burma Road, but more vertical and a long steady climb,” Don says.
Mount Tam, Part 2: “I think the northside Indian Trail on Mt. Tam is quite steep. Stay fit, and keep climbing.” — Edgar Lehmann
Berryessa Peak: “15 miles and 3500-feet elevation, up and down, out and back. And the trailhead is now signed.” — Bob Verve
Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom
2019-12-28 12:00:00Z
https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/How-cyclists-hikers-kayakers-join-1-Club-14935707.php
CAIiED2bExL8EGGhiUMisV6eIzAqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowk-T4CjDyst8CMPiZsgU
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "How cyclists, hikers, kayakers join ‘1% Club’ - San Francisco Chronicle"
Post a Comment