SAIL Walkabout

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The people listed below have indicated that they plan to participate in some or all of the following events, weather permitting. Rain is predicted for several days before this event, so even if the weather is decent on Saturday the trails are likely to be muddy. If it is raining, see the Alternative Plan below. To join this sentimental journey, send an email to les@cs.stanford.edu.

10:15am Gather at the Arastradero Preserve parking lot, which is on the right side of Arastradero Road about ½ mile from Page Mill Road. Meet at the Visitors Center, which has restrooms. Here is a link to their website courtesy of Yoram Yakimovsky: http://www.bahiker.com/southbayhikes/arastradero.html .

10:30am Begin a 3 mile hike in the Arastradero Preserve. Bring water if you are likely to need it. Bring a dog on leash if you like. Bring a mountain bike if you like, though that would be somewhat antisocial unless you organize a group of renegades. In view of the sizable number of participants it will be difficult to keep the group together during the hike unless we consistently walk at a moderate pace. (See the map at the end for the route.) We may saturate the parking there, in which case we can set up a car shuttle from the Park & Ride lot on Page Mill Road near the freeway.

Hike along the route shown. After awhile you will pass a small lake, visible through the trees on your left. Continue straight up the hill and at the top you will come to where the Meadowlark trail crosses – go left there. As you go up the Meadowlark trail, far to the right you will be able to see the horse stables that have replaced the DC Power Lab. After about 40 minutes from the start of the hike, turn back, but when you reach the main trail (De Anza) continue on Meadowlark instead of going back the way you came.

I will try to scamper ahead at this point to bring bubbly to the toasting site. In less than 20 minutes you will reach a crosswalk on Arastradero Road that takes you to the entrance road to the old site. Note that it is marked “Portola Pastures, 1600 Arastradero Road” rather than “CAUTION ROBOT VEHICLE”. If you bring a dog it might be a good idea to tie it up at the gate rather than bringing it into the horse area but if it is well behaved you can bring it along.

Noon Go up the entrance road to 1600 Arastradero. Just past the place where it meets the old circumferential road, turn right on the dirt road going uphill toward Felt Lake and meet at the top of the hill, where we will drink a toast to good times past and future.

Going back, where the entrance road meets Arastradero, turn left onto the Redtail Loop trail, which will take you to the parking area.

12:30pm For those who wish, migrate to the nearby Alpine Inn (a.k.a. Zotts) at the corner of Arastradero and Alpine Roads to consume greasy hamburgers and beer.

2:00pm Migrate to the Stanford Oval or someplace else for a game of volleyball using Greg Nelson’s set up. The Big Game starts at 4:30pm so we should be able to avoid the traffic jam both going and coming.

Alternative Plan. If it looks like rain we will instead meet for lunch somewhere around noon. I will try to figure this out by Wednesday, Nov. 18 and announce the change if needed. In some ways it would be fun to go to Zotts but on rainy days the inside tables there quickly fill up with noisy people, so that would not be a good choice. One possibility would be MacArthur Park, next to the Palo Alto train station, if that can be arranged.

Participants as of November 20, 2009

Bruce Anderson

Dave Barstow

Bruce Baumgart

Queenette Baur & Teri Tyrrell

Alan Biermann

Yvon Bourbotte

John Chowning

Les Earnest

Martin Frost

Tom Gafford

Jim Hieronymus

Kevin Karplus

Michael Kelly

Oussama Khatib

Don Knuth

Amy Lansky

Marc LeBrun

David Lowe

Gareth Loy

Paul & Ann Martin

Martin Morf

Brian McCune

Bernard Mont-Reynaud

Greg Nelson

Ted Panofsky

Roger & Carole Parkison

Karl Pingle

Bill Pitts

Wolfgang Polak

Tom Pressburger

Lynn Quam

Chuck & Linda Rieger + little ones

Hanan Samet

Vic Scheinman

Ted Selker

Dave & Janet Smith

Irwin Sobel

Connie Stanley

Dick Sweet

Dan Swinehart

Tovar

Bob Tucker

Jacobo Valdes

Fred Wright

Yoram Yakimovsky