{"id":1216,"date":"2019-11-28T01:55:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T09:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sda.backpack45.com\/?p=1216"},"modified":"2019-11-15T15:04:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T23:04:52","slug":"gratitude-for-our-trails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/uncategorized\/gratitude-for-our-trails\/","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude for our trails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;\">Thanksgiving and Gratitude<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1221\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1221\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-1221\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sda.backpack45.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-28-33_1849_P80--scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"370\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-28-33_1849_P80--scaled.jpg 1232w, https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-28-33_1849_P80--768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-28-33_1849_P80--1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-28-33_1849_P80--2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1221\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sunol Regional Park, Alameda County, CA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Here in the S.F. Bay Area, the days have been so mild with daytime temperatures in the 60s and 70s, it&#8217;s hard to believe that it&#8217;s almost Thanksgiving. However, when it starts getting dark at 5 PM, and colder, we realize we have to work a bit harder to fit hikes into our shorter daytime hours.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">This reminds me that I have much to appreciate about where I live, why I try to support environmental causes, and how grateful I am for the thousands of people here who work to protect our environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1222\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1222\" style=\"width: 375px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-1222\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sda.backpack45.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-31-55_1851_P80--scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"375\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-31-55_1851_P80--scaled.jpg 1232w, https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-31-55_1851_P80--768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-31-55_1851_P80--1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2011-11-06_14-31-55_1851_P80--2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1222\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sunol Regional Park, Alameda County, CA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><em><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">In particular, I am reminded of the importance of&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">the regional parklands around me, which&#8230;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">provide hundreds of miles of trails that I can hike.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">bring ever-changing displays of flowers, trees, and other plants.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">have quiet places to clear my head and exercise my body.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">inspire my writing and photography with its scenic beauty.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">support wildlife\u2014from ladybugs covering entire branches; herons stalking their prey; hawks soaring overhead; flickers hammering cavities in tree branches to build their nests.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">offer the opportunity to gain perspective on our place on this earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">allow free, or inexpensive, visits to all who want to come.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><em><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">And, people are instrumental in what happens&#8230;<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">by envisioning the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">setting aside of parcels of land to create parklands.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">when they work to acquire properties that would otherwise turn into developments. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">by volunteering to help with fund-raising, to interface with the public at the kiosks and gift shops, and by organizing work parties for weed control. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">when they become park employees that build fences and picnic tables, clear out invasive plants, repair storm damaged trails and roadways, and educate park visitors.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">by voting in tax measures to support and improve our parks<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Galen Rowell, photographer, climber, author (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">1940-2002) in&nbsp; <em><span id=\"productTitle\" class=\"a-size-large\">Bay Area Wild: A Celebration of the Natural Heritage of the San Francisco Bay Area <\/span><\/em>wrote,&nbsp; &#8220;The San Francisco Bay Area holds the most extensive system of wild greenbelts in the nation, with more than 200 parks and other protected areas lying within forty miles of the city.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><em>We are truly blessed to live here.<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanksgiving and Gratitude Here in the S.F. Bay Area, the days have been so mild with daytime temperatures in the 60s and 70s, it&#8217;s hard to believe that it&#8217;s almost Thanksgiving. However, when it starts getting dark at 5 PM, and colder, we realize we have to work a bit harder to fit hikes into &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/uncategorized\/gratitude-for-our-trails\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Gratitude for our trails&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,85,76,72,8,38,31,37,74],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1226,"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions\/1226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sda.backpack45.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}