Saturday, September 09, 2006

Field Trip Week: Walking on Endor

On Wednesday, Fosco and Geoffrey drove north, over the Golden Shower, er, Golden Gate Bridge, through the Rainbow Tunnel into Marin County, up a curvy, curvy mountain road to Muir Woods National Monument.

If I hadn't been walking through the incredible redwoods on the UCSC campus for the last month, I would have been floored by Muir Woods. Even so, Muir Woods is still gorgeous--I could walk through redwoods all day.

But even though the redwoods aren't especially novel to someone who walks in redwoods every day, Muir Woods still has its attractions:

  • In the spring, Pacific salmon swim up Redwood Creek to spawn.
  • Muir Woods has hosted historic meetings, like the commemoration of FDR held in 1945 by the Charter delegates of the United Nations (held here) and the original summer camping trip of the Bohemian Club, a retreat known affectionately among attendees as "Sodomy Camp."
  • Visitors to Muir Woods have the option of walking the trails, or of renting (at a reasonable rate) a speeder bike. Geoffrey and I chose to walk.

Although this isn't exactly the season for seeing interesting wildlife in Muir Woods, we did come within fifteen feet of some very tame black-tailed deer. However, one question haunted our entire visit:

Where are the goddamn Ewoks?

The rangers refused to answer this question, so I'm writing a letter to Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior and former porn star. I'm glad to see that what he did to pay for college didn't affect his confirmation. Incidentally, he must be the first Secretary of the Interior that people want to dress up as for Halloween.

Wow. This post ended up somewhere weird, didn't it?

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