Sunday, April 27, 2008

Gear experiment on San Bruno Mountain

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The air was warm, the breezes light, the sky as blue as it gets amid the Bay Area smog. So yesterday I headed off for San Bruno Mountain to try a gear experiment.

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This harness holds the camera in front of me, freeing both hands. I can run in this rig -- or at least trot rapidly. I've been looking for something like it for awhile. Photography is possible, though sweaty. Take a look.

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The mountain is not, itself, photogenic. It is a hard, rocky out-cropping, the northernmost bit of the Santa Cruz mountains, surrounded by city and suburbia. Its trails are usually empty. Its wind-whipped, brush covered sides are not particularly scenic. I love it. There is more green this time of year than any other time.

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Trails wind through impenetrable scrub growth.

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At this season, there are poppies.

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And wild iris.

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And swaths of what I think is yellow broom.

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There was also plenty of this pretty weed -- poison oak.

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Not a bad view of downtown San Francisco.

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Earnest park enthusiasts work hard at eradicating non-native planets on the mountain. But these tall, straight eucalyptus provide a lovely avenue on its lower flank.

The camera harness works fine. The experiment is a success. I'll have to come back and photograph the mountain again when it assumes its normal, parched gold color.

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