Tam Hiking Tours

Definitely a stop and gawk moment on Mt Tam today. (Some views just stop you in your tracks! ) Nice views of Mt Tam and Mt Diablo and the Pacific Ocean and trees and grass and everything under the sun!

Winter hiking on Mt Tamalpais, need I say more? #breathtakingview #mountainlove

Marin Headlands, you amaze me!

Wednesday, January 6th at 7:00pm Mill Valley Library Virtual Event THE MILL VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESENTS SPIRITS OF SAN FRANCISCO VOYAGES THROUGH THE UNKNOWN CITY WITH GARY KAMIYA & PAUL MADONNA... Join us for a lively discussion with author Gary Kamiya and artist Paul Madonna as they talk about their new, bestselling book Spirits of San Francisco: Voyages Through the Unknown City. Marrying image and text in a unique way, Kamiya’s captivating narratives and Madonna’s masterful pen-and-ink drawings breathe life into San Francisco sites both iconic and obscure. The book is both a visual feast and a detailed, personal, loving, informed portrait of San Francisco from two critically acclaimed contemporary chroniclers of this beloved city. GARY KAMIYA (Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco) writes a popular history column for the SF Chronicle. As co-founder of Salon.com and former executive editor of San Francisco magazine, Kamiya has been a fixture on the Bay Area literary scene for more than 30 years. Award-winning artist and author PAUL MADONNA (All Over Coffee and Everything Is Its Own Reward) is the creator of the Emit Hopper Mystery Series. His unique brand of combining images and stories has been heralded as an all new art form, and celebrated internationally. Follow this link to register for this free event: https://conta.cc/3qk77EH

My business partner and friend, Alexandra Kenin (Urban Hiker SF), love to explore together. Last week she took me on a tour of the lakes of Golden Gate Park where we saw 8 of 10 lakes (some natural, some man made), several bison (yes, there are great big bison living in GG park), a fantastic jazz band (with a dancing dog) on the margin of Spreckels Lake, a group of women happily dancing under the trees and lots of pretty fall foliage, and water water water! Alex and I love t...o explore together. No matter how many times you take a walk, there's always something new to see. Nature is giving like that! . If you're interested in exploring SF I recommend Alex's book, Urban Trails: San Francisco: Coastal Bluffs/ The Presidio/ Hilltop Parks & Stairways, and Gary kamiya's book Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of SF and his brand new book with fantastic illustrations by Paul Madonna, Spirits of San Francisco: Voyages through the Unknown City. Gary and Paul with be my featured speakers for next month's virtual Mill Valley Historical Society's First Wed Presentation. Really looking forward to that!

Awe shucks, Marin County, Thanks for voting TAM HIKING TOURS #1 Tour Company in the Pacific Sun's" Best Of" contest. It's an honor and a privilege serving you and our beautiful Mt Tamalpais. #natureloveforever #hikingishappiness

Hey Hikers! Mt Tam needs your help right now. The West Point Inn is in danger of closing as a result of Covid 19 restrictions. I've hiked to mountaintop lodges and faraway hideaways for most of my life but the West Point Inn is that rare spot that feels like home. Rain or shine it offers shelter and inspiration for all that make their way there. It's the jewell on the crown of Mt Tamalpais and must be protected and supported during this time of instability. Please give what you can! Thanks! https://www.gofundme.com/f/west-point-inn

Trees offer the best advice: Hang on. Stay rooted. Stay connected. Love. And don't forget to photosynthesize.

Big Brother and the Holding Company was one of my favorite bands growing up so it was gratifying to finally meet drummer David Getz and capture his amazing oral history. Particularly interesting to me was Dave's time as a young art student in SF which he recounts so vividly you can almost smell the paint. A friendship blossomed out of our time together and and it's a real pleasure to share the oral history of artist, musician, family man, and all around good guy, Dave Getz. Enjoy!

Please join the Mill Valley Historical Society as it presents its first online First Wednesday Speaker Presentation. FIRE on the MOUNTAIN. Pre-History. History. And the Future Of Wildfire in Marin, with MIKE SWEZY On Thursday, October 8, 2020 at 7:00pm | Mill Valley Library Virtual ... In this timely and salient virtual presentation, Mike Swezy will discuss fire throughout the ages and its impact on the environment. Starting with time before humans and working his way to the present, Swezy will examine the role of fire and how it has been used in society. Topics covered will include how indigenous people of Marin used fire, the wildfires that presently affect us and the role of climate change in wildfire dynamics. MIKE SWEZY recently retired as the Watershed Manager after a 23-year career with Marin Municipal Water. He has a long and varied career in forestry and fire ecology and has served with organizations including Marin Conservation Corps (now Conservation Corp North Bay), the US Forest Service and California State Parks. In 2014, he was awarded Marin Conservation League’s Green Award for Environmental Leadership for efforts to create the Tamalpais Lands Collaborative. He served on FIRESafe Marin’s Board of Directors for ten years and now serves on the Boards of the Marin Conservation League and Friends of Corte Madera Creek Watershed. Registration required. Please follow this link to register online. https://conta.cc/3hx5nTc Registrants will be sent a Zoom Link with registration confirmation. For more information, call (415) 389-4292 or visit millvalleylibrary.org

Take a hike in the woods like your life depends on it! Taking good care of yourself never felt better!

Sheltering in place is saving lives and improving the air quality big time! What a wake up call!

Hiking in the time of Corona Virus: Hiking has been a source of good health and solace for most of my life. Here in the Bay Area we fortunate to live so close to natural open spaces but without social distancing outside can be as dangerous as inside a busy market. Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD) ranger Matt Cerkel is one of our most specialized mountain rangers and my go to guy regarding mountain safety. Please read his below message and please heed his warning for your... sake and the sake of rescue workers like him. To learn more about Matt's qualifications and his deep commitment and love of Mt Tamalpais please follow the below link to his oral history. Be smart! Be safe! Be well! "Well that was interesting... the single busiest day in the park I’ve worked in for the past 25 years and at a time we need to be practicing social distancing and sheltering-in-place to flatten the curve in response to Covid-19. As the senior ranger I had order a park road closure today, when we passed our parking capacity, had emergency access restricted by cars and had large numbers of visitors gathered in a few areas. At the peak my park and the neighboring state park likely had 20,000 plus visitors. My coworkers and I provided 400 plus visitor assists, a normal weekend day usually has 10 to 30. We had one lost hiker call in an area we call The Bermuda Triangle luckily with my knowledge of the mountain a coworker and I located the hiker in less than 45 minutes... I now highly recommend for the time being explore parks no more than a half hour from your home and don’t go midday on the weekend. If you can walk or bike directly to the park even better! If possible stay home. Luckily I briefly visited a trail that was near a busy trailhead, but only has light to moderate use. I enjoyed the blooming trillium and the quiet, until I had to warn a group of teens blasting gangsta rap. As I said earlier..interesting...as I went off-duty a neighboring National Park unit was working their own lost hiker call and was planning closures tomorrow due to the problems from today’s overuse. The parks will be here when this pandemic ends, enjoy virtual tours or parks very close to home until then. @Planet Earth"

I find Helen Russell (co-owner of Equator Coffee and Teas) as irresistible as the fare she sells. A naturally good natured collaborator she brings brightness and good cheer where ever she goes. The below except from her oral history incapsulates her work and life ethic and is one of the reasons why she and her partner Brook became a "20 year over-night success story". Enjoy! Helen Russell: We try to hire for kindness and then teach them how to make coffee, not the other way around. For me, the most important attribute is empathy. Because if you have empathy, there’s so many things that you can do.

THE MILL VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESENTS MARINCELLO REVISITED with HUEY JOHNSON, DOUG FERGUSON, BOB PRAETZEL, & DR. MARTIN GRIFFIN In 1965 Gulf Oil and developer Thomas Frouge (with the support of the Marin County Board of Supervisors) designated 2,100 acres of the Marin Headlands open space as a self-contained community of high-rise apartment towers, townhouses and single homes and commerce and light industry for 20,000 people. Its name was Marincello. Such development w...ould have likely paved the way for other similar projects across Marin County. In 2012 award-winning filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto’s film "Rebels with a Cause" profiled many local activists who banded together to protect coastlines, farmlands and open spaces from urban development. Join us for a panel discussion with land preservationists Huey Johnson, Doug Ferguson, and Bob Praetzel, the Rebels who fought the long gritty battle to halt this reckless development, thereby preserving the natural open space near the Golden Gate Bridge. Also joining us will be Rebel Dr. Martin Griffin (Martin Griffin Preserve/Audubon Canyon Ranch) and special musical guests Chris Smith (Jefferson Starship), Dave Getz (Big Brother and the Holding Company), and Darby Gould (Jefferson Starship and Big Brother and the Holding Company). Registration recommended. For the Screening: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg For the Talk: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg For more information, call (415) 389-4292 x3 or visit millvalleylibrary.org

Hi Hiking fans! It's time for the Pacific Sun's Best in Marin 2020 readers poll. Tam Hiking Tours sure would appreciate your support! Thanks! And keep on hiking!

FIRST WEDNESDAY, February 5th at 7:00 pm Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Avenue THE LAST TIE OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL RAILROAD" with Patrick Goggi...ns, joined by Lotus Fong and Norman Ten In 1869, the last tie used for the ceremonial completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad was harvested from a California Laurel Tree on Mt. Tamalpais. Destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake the tie was resurrected in 2019 at the 150th anniversary of the railroad’s completion, by descendants of the Chinese and Irish railroad workers in order to honor their memory. Join us as Patrick Goggins, Lotus Fong and Norman Ten discuss and answer questions about the tie and the ceremonial spikes which were exhibited in Sacramento, Utah and San Francisco, along with a Gold Spike provided by capitalist financiers. Goggins was born in Northern Montana to an Irish immigrant railroad and construction family. He served as Director of the Irish Forum Dialogue for Peace in Ireland from 1980-1998 and Chair of the Irish Literary and Historical Society. He is a member of the United Irish Cultural Center, the Chinese Historical Society of America and the Chinese Railroad Workers Descendants Association. An avid bird watcher, he is deeply connected to nature and Mt. Tamalpais, and is a member of many environmental organizations. Lotus Fong is an independent scholar and activist, and Norman Ten is the President of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance in San Francisco. No charge to attend. Registration highly recommended: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg or visit the Reference Desk. For more information, call (415) 389-4292 x3 or visit millvalleylibrary.org

Happy Winter Solstice, hikers! It's a day celebrated by cultures all over the world for thousands of years. The winter solstice occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun. From now on days will lengthen as much as minutes per day. Each additional min a treasure of delight! Yay! :))

It appears a mountain elf has adorned the Hoo-Koo-E- Koo Trail bridge on Mt Tamalpais with Holiday Cheer! Happy Holidays Hikers!