Sunday, May 30, 2021

Sweeney Ridge

I went on a birthday walk with my cousin and his family today at a place called Sweeney Ridge. My cousin lived in the vicinity as a teen and had fond memories of the area. He left for college in 1987 and hasn't been back until now. And I only recall hiking the trail with him when we were both teens. Back then there were horse stables up on the ridge. My cousin's step-mom boarded her horses there. Tasked with taking care of the horses when his parents were away, he remembers hiking the trail in order to feed and brush them. I think I 'met' the horses at some point. There were two of them and I remember one was called Smokey. My cousin and his step-mom would often go riding up along the ridge and even down around the nearby Crystal Springs reservoir. How they were allowed access to what is actually our local source of drinking water, I do not know. No one but a park ranger living near the reservoir has that sort of permission these days.

In the intervening years, Sweeney Ridge has come under the jurisdiction of the National Parks Service. What was once a sleepy trail at the end of a residential street in a fog-covered neighborhood is now a bustling walk path with an ever shortage of attendant parking spaces. 

The picture directly below shows a barely legible bit of lettering reading: FOG LINE. From this point on a yellow strip of paint down the middle of the path is meant to help keep walkers on the footway. The fog this morning was not too dense, so following the yellow line wasn't necessary, fortunately. 


Fog line, baby!

Rather cheerful-looking local flora.

A bit of (very early) berry.








24 comments:

  1. Fog line is new to me. I can remember crawling along highways following the white lines in the centre of the road.
    Horses and drinking water? In times gone that would have been common.
    Happy belated birthday to either you or your cousin.

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    1. Thank you, E.C.! My cousin turned 52 today. :)

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  2. Fog line is new to me. Glad you enjoyed your walk

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    1. Thank you, Susan. I took it slow and easy, so all was pretty good. :)

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  3. My technique for driving at night in thick fog is to straddled the white line in the middle of the road and hope nobody is doing the same thing in the other direction.

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    1. Sounds like a potentially deadly game of chicken.

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  4. I grew up where thick fog rises from the fields and drifts in from the river. I've ridden my bicycle out of a side road, across the main road, and up someone's drive. Fog lines and road markings don't work if you can't see the ground.

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    1. Absolutely. I recall learning as an early driver that putting on the headlights do NOT help one see the road during fog, but actually hinders sight.

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  5. That fog line isn't going to be much help in actual fog, LOL!

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    1. I know, right?! It's probably not been repainted in about 35 years.

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  6. It's called a fog line? I had no idea. I've seen them on paths, but I thought it was just to divide the space.

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    1. Yeah, I've seen them loads on footpaths in areas where dense fog is never an issue. I suppose those lines are just for dividing the path whereas this one (for sure) is to help folk encompassed by fog navigate their way safely.

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  7. Fascinating. I've had enough experience with fog; driving up the mountains in New Jersey to Pennsylvania had lots of fog and I read a directive in a NJ rest stop on driving in fog. It said, if you must drive, follow the white marker for the side of the road, not the cat's eye marks for the center. That probably saved me because I did have to drive. And now I see across the country, the same solid white line is the fog line.

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  8. Recall having fog in the Midwest to occasionally drive in. We were told to keep our headlights on low, not high beam, but even then they didn't penetrate the road ahead very far. Driving really slow could make out edge of paved road where we were. Don't think we had the white line marker there back then —that came later. Avoided fog driving as much as possible.

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  9. I've never heard of a fog line, and that one doesn't look that helpful to me! We live on the top of a hill and it can get foggy here in the winter, so yes definitely not the time to use full beam on the headlights.

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  10. Dear Bea, I hope you enjoyed your time on the trail with your cousin and his family. Since returning to Missouri--where I grew up--after being away for a little over 50 years, I find myself eager to visit places that I knew as a teenager. So much has changed, of course, in half a century. And so my heart leaps up when I find a place still where it was all those years ago. Are you feeling the same about this trail? Peace.

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  11. Fog line? That is a new one to me. Looks like you had a good walk. We were in Northern California last month and enjoyed it. Not a lot of fog but not a lot of sun either. Take care.

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  12. I just wanted to stop by and say hi, Bea. Hope all is well and you are just too busy to blog.

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  13. Dear Bea, are you okay? You haven't posted for a couple months. I hope all is well. Peace.

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  14. Dear Bea, a month has passed and there's still no word about how you are. I hope things are not being hard, difficult, unhealthy, whatever for you. Take care. Take great care and be gracious to yourself. Peace.

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  15. Hi Bea. Like others, I'm wondering where you are and hope you are OK.

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  16. Hi Bea, I'm joining a bit of line here in wondering how you're travelling.

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