Outdoor notes
Deep sea opener: The season for rockfish and lingcod opens April 15 for the Farallones Islands, the Deep Reef, Cordell Bank and other rocky haunts off the Bay Area coast. Info: Berkeley Charter Boats, (510) 849-3333 or www.berkeleycharterboats.com. Yosemite plowing: In Yosemite National Park, crews closed Glacier Point Road (at Highway 41 and Chinquapin Junction) last week and started plowing from Badger Pass toward Glacier Point. With high snow levels before this weekend’s storm, the best guess is that Glacier Point Road will open before the end of the month. Updates at www.nps.gov/yose. Big Basin waterfalls: The deluge in the Santa Cruz Mountains has recharged the waterfalls for April in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The most direct route to Berry Creek Falls, Silver Falls and the Golden Cascade on the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail is still closed from storm damage from more than a year ago. No access is available from Waddell Beach until the temporary bridges go in, likely by the end of the month. In the meantime, hikers can reach the Berry Creek Canyon with the remote back route on the Sunset Trail. Plan all day to do it. Info: (831) 338-8860 and www.parks.ca.gov. A caution: In conversations last week with several state park executives who help run the Division of Boating and Waterways, they urged extreme caution for those considering rafting or kayaking on rivers flowing out of the Sierra Nevada. Some rivers are near flood stage this weekend, and all are high and cold. They will settle down soon enough for the launch of the rafting season. Free stuff: The website for the DBW, www.dbw.ca.gov, has free booklets and publications available for download. Take a look, download what fits you. A personal note: I’ll be taking a two-week hiatus far, far away, out of range of even the occasional distant smoke signal.
MAILBAG
Chimney Rock: “Just a note of thanks for your column suggesting a visit to Chimney Rock in Point Reyes for wildflowers. My wife and I hiked out to the end of the trail and were wowed by the blooms. Poppies, Douglas iris, and many others really showing themselves.” — Brian and Julianna Maul, San Rafael Golden eagle, up close: “I was standing on a cliff, overlooking Dungeness Spit on the Olympic Peninsula, when a golden eagle came gliding by at eye level. It was close enough that I could hear the swoosh of those mighty wings.” — Robert Jacobson Los Vaqueros: “Thanks to your write-up on Los Vaqueros Reservoir we saw our first golden eagle. Magnificent! My wife, Cris, and I hiked down to Cowboy Cove to do our eagle searching.” — Lee McEachern