SUMMER VACATION DONE come and gone, my oh my.
Yes, there’s nothing like a return to khakis, gaudy striped shirts and dress shoes to have one singing the U.S. Blues. (Tip of the cap to the Grateful Dead.)
Considering recent unemployment figures and my middling talents, however, perhaps I should just be content that I still have a job to come back to.
Last week’s jaunt through the Land of Fruits and Nuts (aka California) illustrated that things could be much worse. I could, for example, live in a state governed by Conan the Barbarian that is currently using IOUs as currency.
A few other things I learned during my nine days on the road:
• California collects — Outdoor recreation in California almost always comes with a surcharge.
A large number of the popular outdoor areas we drove past on Interstate 5 had a person stationed at the entrance waiting to collect some cash.
In retrospect, this shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise given the aforementioned IOUs.
However, some of the charges seemed a little extravagant.
The most egregious of them all was a $5 fee just to take a 20-minue dip in Lake Shasta next to a collection of houseboats.
(And that was at a discount.)
We were able to stumble upon a free camp site in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest later on, but that was following hours of driving and an unnerving encounter with a dead dog.
So you could say we paid a price in the end.
• Dogfish rule — Apparently the bane of Peninsulites’ existence is quite a score in San Francisco.
While enjoying the downtown view on a city pier near AT&T Park, I happened upon a fisherman reeling in the catch of a lifetime — a 30-inch dogfish.
The angler in question showed off his fish to inquisitive tourists.
They’d never seen a “shark” before.
Of course, he made sure each tourist in the vicinity had a chance to touch the exalted beast.
“I caught a 25-pound halibut here a few weeks ago,” he later boasted.
When I caught a flatty of similar size in Peninsula waters last year, I received a few pieces of congratulatory correspondence . . . which were dripping with sarcasm.
The point is, we don’t brag about chicken halibut around these parts.
In California — where they don’t even have a salmon season — such fish must be hard to come by.
• Bike talk bores — As any avid reader of this column space knows, I recently took up bike riding as a hobby. Now it’s my favorite way to tour an area.
That being said, there’s no subject more sleep-inducing than bike talk.
Unfortunately, some Californians love to talk about anything and everything pertaining to the wonderful world of cycling.
They’ll talk about the newest bike fads (apparently fixed gear bikes are hip), the pros and cons of certain handlebars, which gear lube is the best (and why), the numerous advantages of pedal straps, which bike reflectors are the coolest . . . you name it.
Spellbinding stuff to say the least.
Quick correction
An item run in the last two Friday outdoors columns incorrectly identified the salmon seasons for Marine Area 6 (eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca).
Both Marine Areas 6 and 5 (Sekiu) are currently open to salmon fishing, with various restrictions.
The two marine areas will continue to allow some form of coho retention after Aug. 15, although all chinook must be released.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.
