"On Sunday, we were kayaking at Drakes Estero and came upon a live Minke Whale stranded on a sand bar. The whale was situated about a mile from the opening to the ocean and 3 miles in from the old oyster farm. We contacted the Marine Mammal Center to request help." (thx DC)

From a local reader: "Residents living in more rural towns may find that the U.S. Postal Service does not deliver mail to their homes. Instead, those residents must obtain a Post Office Box in order to receive mail. Unfortunately, I have heard about people in this situation, in nearby communities and beyond, being charged a yearly fee for the post office box. If the U.S.P.S. refuses to deliver mail to your home, it must provide a no-fee PO box." FULL STORY: https://broadlandsspectator.co (thx JS)

"Several environmental groups are seeking an injunction to prevent the National Park Service from moving ahead with a ranch management plan seeking to extend leases to livestock operations that dot the Point Reyes National Seashore. The groups filed for an injunction Friday in U.S. District Court in Oakland to stop any work associated with the management plan. A judge could take up the injunction issue in October."

“Former Interior Secretary Salazar — a cattle rancher himself — unilaterally and out of the blue instructed the park service,” according to the filing. “Secretary Salazar’s surprise directive was not supported by any environmental analysis, nor informed by public notice and comment, as the law requires.”

FULL STORY: http://www.marinij.com/article

"Anyone missing a kitten? He followed us back to our car last night from the parking lot at Saltwater over to Inverness Way, we brought him home rather than leave him roaming along SFD, he seemed pretty happy to come home with us, but I'd hate to think someone is out there missing their kitten. He's sort of grendel colored, maybe a few months old." - via Aaron Ely

Looks like someone else us taking a shot at opening a restaurant at the boatel in Inverness. Anyone know more about it? Fog's Kitchen?

Want to buy Inverness? "The more-than-century-old building that encompasses almost all of downtown Inverness is for sale with a listing price of $2.5 million. Longtime Inverness resident Marshall Livingston has co-owned the building since 2001, but said his business partner, Dick Lemon, has moved to Santa Fe and wants to sell; Mr. Livingston co-listed the property with Sotheby’s realtor Rick Trono after deciding he could not buy him out." FULL STORY BEHIND THE PAYWALL AT THE LIGHT: http://www.ptreyeslight.com/ar (photo by Martha Proctor and the Inverness Assocation)

The Inverness Fair gets underway tomorrow by, Saturday, August 13 at 8 am with pancakes on the grill to support the Tomales Bay Youth Center! Browse the book sales for Marin County Free Library; eat a tostada to support Waterdogs and then some pie to support CLAM (my favorite kind of eating!) Plants and rummage sales for the Inverness Garden Club and much more - don't miss it! Right in downtown Inverness by the fire station.

"DRIVERS BEWARE - Last Monday the timbers used for the walkway across the Green Bridge located on Shoreline Hwy at the south end of Point Reyes Station caught fire damaging the walkway. CalTrans has inspected the damage and determined the walkway is now unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists to use until it is repaired.

The immediate problem is that this is really the only place for cars, people and cyclist to cross the creek without having to swim or at least get wet traveling into or out of town from the south. This is also a concern to me as there are children who use this walkway to go back and forth to school, which reopens next Thursday here in West Marin.

PLEASE pay extra attention when driving across the bridge no matter what time day or night to look for pedestrians and whoever and whatever shares that bridge and walkway until a time CalTrans can repair the walkway, CalTrans thinks they can get this done in the next 2-weeks.

ps: The fire is under investigation and initial observations lead to the thought that this fire may have been caused from a "warming fire" used by transient(s) seeking shelter under the bridge.

Lt. Doug Pittman
your local Sheriff 😊"

Let us know if you see any!!! "This month’s Perseid meteor shower August 11-12 is going to be spectacular, according to scientists at NASA. Normally, the Perseid shower offers about 60 meteors an hour, but this year scientists expect an outburst to deliver more than twice as many." FULL STORY: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.c

The Transportation Authority of Marin decided to make the volunteer crossing guard positions at West Marin School and Bolinas School into paid positions. School is starting on Aug. 23 and guards are needed twice a day, 8 am and 3 pm. Shifts are an hour but TAM will include time & travel ( $27.00 per shift).

PLEASE Help or pass this on because right now, we have no guards.

To sign up please call Lynn Menard at 415-858-2148.

Background check will be needed before you start (very quick finger printing and ID check). A short training will be provided by TAM.

"Point Reyes National Seashore announced today that the restoration of Drakes Estero, a 2,500- acre wilderness estuary within the park, will begin this week. Workers will remove an estimated 500 tons of marine debris. They will extract and dispose of 5 miles of dock-like wooden racks, and clean several acres of plastic and other man-made debris on the estero floor and sandbars. " FULL STORY: https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn (photo from Press Democrat)

A local citizen just saw smoke smoldering at the Green Bridge, called it in and the fire department responded quickly before things got out of hand. A reminder, if you see smoke, call it in! (Good work LN)

Maybe this isn't new, but someone spotted that the Bovine is using pasta as coffee stirrers. Compostable! Nicely done. Via Kevin Day on Instagram.

Every day is a day for something. Today happened to be National Lighthouse Day! Of course! Here is a short video from the PRNPS to celebrate our favorite lighthouse. #nationallighthouseday VIDEO: https://www.periscope.tv/w/1dR

From the Point Reyes Light: "This is Tess and David responding to Karen’s (and later to Abbie Durkee’s) comments. First, we would be so much happier if you came to us with your complaint before posting it on Facebook. We always welcome any and all responses to the newspaper—our family business, our livelihood, our work in progress. We are human and make mistakes, and we care deeply about the impacts of what we do. We are not in it for the money; there is very little money in this business and, contrary to what you state, publishing inflammatory or antagonizing material is not lucrative. Quite the opposite. The paper has suffered whenever we have printed something perceived as inflammatory or antagonizing.
About your letter title: I simply did not realize that a portion of your email subject line was intended as the title. I apologize for that. (I am working these days with a 10-month-old with me full-time, and my 5-year-old with me almost all of the time; things can slip past me.) Many people who email their letters don't include titles, and I have gotten into the habit of putting place-holders above letters when I send them to David for layout. I used to write the titles myself when an author did not draft one that fit into our space constraints; now I'm out of the office most of the week and letter titles are often written by David (as in your letter). It was not his intention to write an inflammatory headline; we both agree it was not a good title (and in fact I had intended to change it, then forgot to). None of us are great headline writers; none of us jumps at the task of writing headlines. I think we both have a good dose of anxiety about it—it’s difficult to write something in a very short space that captures a story or letter. Additionally, most letters come to us in the letter-to-the-editor form that we have on our website, and there is no space to write a title there. Most newspapers write their own letter titles, and as far as I can tell almost no newspaper goes through the trouble I do to edit letters with authors and gain approval of any tweaks and edits prior to publication. Karen, you will remember that I had to substantially trim your letter to fit it in—it was still hundreds of words beyond the standard limit—and I got your approval and even your praise before publication. You never mentioned your title in our editing process. Still, we are going to make a very concerted effort in the future to keep letter titles that authors draft. There are times when they will need to be shortened or tweaked for space constraints, but we will take extra care to keep originals. And if any of our readers are especially concerned about their titles being printed as is, just make a note of it. Call me! Email me. I’m super available and responsive.
Finally, we take serious issue with the idea that we try to pit people against each other to try to sell more papers. There seems to be the idea among some that we are nefarious people, tapping our fingers together while we ponder evil things to write so we can make more money. Please come meet us. We try very hard to make ethical decisions about everything we write. We make mistakes, but we do not intentionally slant writing to sell a few more papers. These kinds of accusations, and the Light bashing that happens on Facebook, hurts us and our family. They cause us an immense amount of stress. Thank you for thinking twice before doing it.
To Abbie: it’s true, we changed the title of your letter. It was originally titled “Two sides of a white line” and we changed it to “Speak up for safety,” which we did not think was a disservice to the point of your letter, which was summed up in your last sentence as “… it takes a community to create a safe environment for everyone. Join the conversation.” The reason for the change was to fit the whole headline on one line so that we could fit all the letters in the paper that week. Your title was the more creative one, but we changed it for technical reasons, not to make it antagonistic, as you imply."

From Karen Gray - "Today's Point Reyes Light features a Letter to the Editor that I wrote encouraging readers to take into account the need for notice to our first responders about crowd events in our villages. It was titled, "Permitting Crowd Events," and included contact info. for locals to get in touch with Marin Co. permitting and our local Disaster Preparedness representative for future events. The editor replaced my title with her own: "Music Festival Was Illegal." I would never use such inflammatory language. It is hurtful and disrespectful to my neighbors. More to the point, "illigal" is also irrelevant. Jay-walking across an empty main street in Point Reyes is "illegal." So what? Community health and safety is what matters - for locals and our guests who are visiting. I sincerely hope that this destructive move on the part of the Point Reyes Light Editor doesn't inflame the past antagonisms that we are working hard to leave behind. Setting neighbor against neighbor may sell papers but it is a real disservice to our community."

Don't forget, the Inverness Fair is this Saturday from 10am to 3pm by the Inverness Library. The Inverness Fair Scholarship Flea Market raises money each year for the IGC Scholarship Fund, so be sure to come out! Also a pancake breakfast at 8am!

"PATIENCE will be the word this Saturday on our West Marin roadways with one of the largest organized bike rides tomorrow, The West Marin Century.

Drivers, riders, cyclists, tourists and pedestrians need to be more aware than usual as our West Marin roads will be host to hundreds of cyclists competing in several bike races this weekend. CHP & Sheriff's deputies will help out where we can but we all must expect some slow downs as some of our roadways will have partial lane closures to ensure added safety for all. Primary roads impacted will be Lucas Valley Road, Nicasio Valley Road, and Petaluma Point Reyes Road.

Lt. Doug Pittman
your local Sheriff 😊"

Secret spot of the day, do you know where this is? (Thx CP)

"Four Latino families that have lived for decades at Olema’s Stewart Ranch moved out of their homes this month." A very messy situation here, anyone have more details?. FULL STORY: http://www.ptreyeslight.com/ar

"Law enforcement is searching for a motorist who abandoned a vehicle after striking a power pole in Inverness, resulting in a loss of power for more than 1,220 residents. Power is still out for 126 Pacific Gas and Electric customers in Inverness and Point Reyes Station, while California Highway Patrol officers seek the driver of the red 2002 Subaru Outback left at the scene at 11 Drake View Drive." FULL STORY: http://www.marinij.com/general

UPDATE: Car accident on SFD by Perrys took power lines out. Power out in Inverness and Inverness Park. Someone reported seeing two bright flashes in Sir Francis Drake by Perry's before power went out. Anyone else have info?

Spotted in West Marin today. Keeping it real.

There is a pod of about 15 whales a mile out from South Beach in Point Reyes breaching, spy hopping and generally being wild. Perfect viewing conditions, grab your binos and get out there!

"Norman Solomon, the veteran left-wing activist (from West Marin), is good at his job. He knows there are thousands of reporters in Philadelphia eager to write stories about restive Sanders delegates at the convention. So he formed a group of restive Sanders delegates, the Bernie Delegates Network, and is staging a press conference each morning on their behalf at the Marriott in downtown Philadelphia The actual Bernie Sanders campaign, which at this point really just wants to have a nice convention and help Democrats win in November, has nothing to do with this group, which is here to make trouble." FULL STORY: http://www.vox.com/platform/am

A very sad ending to this story. "Bones found by hikers on the sweeping shoreline of Drakes Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore in April were identified as those of a missing UC Berkeley graduate student, officials confirmed Wednesday." FULL STORY: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/

"An alert Sheriff's Sergeant Damon Davis observed a suspicious vehicle parked on Lucas Valley Road just east of Nicasio Valley Road, Nicasio. Looking inside the car Sgt. Davis observed numerous cans of spray paint and other items that are used in "tagging" or more commonly known as vandalizing other persons property.

Sgt. Davis now joined by Deputy Chellson checked the area and found 2 water tanks close by that had fresh "tags" painted on them (one pictured below). As the deputies began to search more closely 2 subjects suddenly stood up from where they were hiding in the grass and fled from the deputies up the hillside.

More officers arrived to assist with the search for the 2 suspects including CHP officers, a CHP helicopter, and 2 canines, one from Novato PD and another from San Rafael PD. The canines, only used to track down the suspects successfully located 1 of the suspects hiding in the grass. The second suspect was not located and it is assumed he continued his flight cross country to who knows where by the time the search was called off.

The suspect caught was identified as James Oliver Browning, 23 year old Novato resident. The second suspect got away but his days of freedom are numbered as we have been able to identify who is is during the course of our investigation and plan to be "catching up" with him soon.

If your home or property has been tagged by what we call a moniker ("BERG") like the one shown in the attached photograph, please call us at 415-473-2311 to report it as we can include it in our prosecution of these 2 individuals. It is our belief these two may have vandalized property not only here in West Marin County but also in many of our adjacent counties.

Doug

Lt. Doug Pittman
aka: your local Sheriff

What's with all the gunshots across the bay tonight? Target practice? Deer hunting? Quail for dinner?

We are lucky to have such incredible rescue resources in Marin. Helicopter rescue of stranded kids in Bolinas. Great work.

Car hit power lines on SFD past Balboa. Power is out. Traffic is blocked both ways for at least an hour.

Car hit power lines at Balboa at SFD. Traffic stopped at Perrys for now.

Car crash blocking SFD by Inverness, power lines down and power may be out.

This should be interesting. "Due to the recent wild Soberanes Fire in Big Sur we are moving this year's WOODSIST FEST to Point Reyes, CA. The new Fest site at Love Field in Point Reyes will be wonderful and ALL attendees are now able to camp on site as part of their ticket purchase." Dates: Tuesday July 26 and Wednesday July 27. Jonathan Richman in the line up! FULL STORY: http://www.montereycountyweekl

A rare day when they're handing out parking tickets at Shell Beach for blocking the fire lane.

Low tide brought out geometric beauty last night on the Estero Trail.

Blimp! Who saw it?

"A lawsuit targeting dairy and beef cattle operations in the Point Reyes National Seashore can move forward, a federal court has ruled. Senior U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong rejected a legal motion by the National Park Service to dismiss a lawsuit brought by conservation groups seeking an updated general management plan and assessment of the environmental impacts of commercial dairy and cattle grazing at the Point Reyes National Seashore." FULL STORY: http://www.marinij.com/article

Full moon tonight, should be a good one. Can anyone get a good picture of it? I never can. "The full moon of July will rise tonight (July 19), bringing us a lunar charm commonly known as the Full Buck Moon which symbolizes the time of the year when male deer, known as bucks, start to grow their new antlers." FULL STORY: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ful

"Emergency units are responding to a report of a vehicle roll over Shoreline Highway north of the Point Reyes Vineyard mile marker 31.34" - via KWMR

The Point Reyes Light is reporting that, "The epic rope swing that once hung from a large fir tree at Bass Lake came down when the tree fell recently." But naked people are still jumping into the lake. (photo by Ape Do Good)

If you haven't experienced Big Time before, I highly recommend. A very special event, right in our own backyard.

Fun Fact Friday - 36th Annual Big Time Festival at Kule Loklo is Saturday, July 16. Park at the Bear Valley Visitor Center and Trailhead and it is a 10-minute walk to the recreated Coast Miwok Indian village called Kule Loklo. Parking will be in short supply.

Before the Europeans came to California, the Coast Miwok people were the inhabitants of what we now call Marin and southern Sonoma Counties. They knew and blended with this bountiful land for thousands of years, developing a rich economy based on gathering, fishing and hunting. Village communities of 75 to several hundred people developed in sheltered places near fresh water and plentiful food. “Kule Loklo” (meaning “Bear Valley”) is a recreated village. It stands where no village ever was, but where one might have stood.

#NPWest #FindYourPark #PointReyesNPS

"Marin Co Fire on-scene of wildland fire on Petaluma Pt Reyes Rd @ Novato Blvd...road closed both directions."

"CHP reports Sir Francis Drake blocked in the vicinity of the Lagunitas store due to a three vehicle accident." - via KWMR

"Hunting rifles, shotguns and an all-terrain vehicle were found stolen from a ranch in Point Reyes Station on Monday morning, just two days after a man who may have had a gun evaded police during a manhunt at Point Reyes Vineyards. The suspect, Jose Antonio Martinez Gonzalez, who is in his late 20s and may live in Petaluma, has not yet been located. The incident began on Saturday morning, with a report of a Latino man on top of a car on Mesa Road threatening someone inside the vehicle. Soon after, a group that apparently included the same man showed up at the tasting room at Point Reyes Vineyards."
FULL STORY: http://www.ptreyeslight.com/ar

Wondering what is going on at Love Field right now? Its a giant parachute structure being built by Gabe Kordy for Danny Vitali's "Invernesia" record release party this Saturday from 4pm - 10pm. Lights, dancing, food, music and good vibes. See you there! MORE INFO: https://www.facebook.com/event

A site you don't see often, recreational jet skis flying across Tomales Bay. (Thx LN)

"Parkman believes, and he has a growing body of evidence to prove that mammoths and other large Ice Age creatures once used these very rocks near Duncan's Landing, along the Sonoma Coast State Beach, to scratch their backs. He claims the giant mammals rubbed so much that large swaths of rock have been buffered smooth." FULL STORY: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/ (thx AN)

Hit and run on the sheriff's new car. Smooth move.

Just in case you forgot to leave a note or maybe you might have seen someone side swipe one of our brand new patrol vehicles , either way it's not too late to call and point out who might be responsible needless to say even us cops can become victims

Air support dumps a load on a fire at Pelican Point fire on Tomales Bay. Very difficult access. Slow rate of burn though. Boat and a helicopter also assisting. Ground crew making there way in. (Thx SG)

Fire out at Pelican Point on Tomales Bay in Point Reyes. All units, water and air units responding. (Thx SG, AN)

From local photographer extraordinaire, Carlos Porrata. "Today turned out to be a very special day. I was blessed with the experience of observing an Anna's Hummingbird fledgling being fed. I had never seen that before in my life."

Two pickup trucks, a white one and an old rusty one just dumped this range at the tennis courts in Second Valley in Inverness. WTF. Anyone see anything?

"Wedged into a rolling West Marin landscape not far from Tomales Bay is a road lined with salvaged trunks and stacks of wood piled high. Arborica is Shively’s lumber yard, mill, and showroom, which has become a prized resource for craftsmen and designers alike." FULL STORY: http://www.gardenista.com/post

What will $3,000,000 get you in Stinson Beach? A beachfront cottage with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. FULL STORY: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07 (thx MM)

"Sheriff's & CHP teamed up today to catch a car load of 5 young adults who apparently set out on their day to create some road rage against cyclists today in West Marin.

All started when the car load of young "adults" fired paint balls at a cyclist on Shoreline Hwy near Sir Francis Drake Blvd. The cyclist was able to catch up to the car load of delinquents where threatening comments and gestures were made at one another. The car load fled from the scene at which point a deputy (oh yea me) happened to drive by where a small crowd who witnessed the incident described the car and the direction of travel of which it fled. One witness, a biker who happened to see this incident occur had the presence of mind to video the incident which by the way...included a great picture of the suspects vehicle and its license plate!

A radio broadcast was given to deputies, Rangers and Highway Patrol officers working in West Marin. Deputies spotted the vehicle and all its occupants traveling southbound on Shoreline Highway near Dogtown and eventually stopped it near Bolinas.

Deputies detained all involved, eventually locating beer, whiskey, a little weed, and other drug paraphernalia inside the car. Initially all denied knowledge of any paint ball guns or rifles but found it a little difficult to lie their way out of what really happened when deputies located orange paint balls matching the color of those used to shoot at the bicyclist and, oh yea, the videos taken of them at the time of the attack...at which time their memories began to return to them.

CHP officers assisted in the investigation as did National Park Seashore Rangers leading to great team work and the successful apprehension and arrest of those responsible.

The Sheriff's Office and our allied law enforcement agencies have ZERO tolerance for this kind of irresponsible behavior that endangers all who share our roadways.

Lt. Doug Pittman
your local Sheriff"

Traffic getting serious in Inverness. Going to be hectic around 6 or 7 when the mass exodus occurs. Plan accordingly.

"Shoreline Highway is blocked in both directions in Stinson Beach by vehicles lining up to enter the park, early opening has been requested." - plan your day accordingly, could get wild out there. (Via KWMR)

The float at Shell Beach is back on the beach. Anyone know what is going on? (Thx SK)

"Palomarin Trailhead closed at Commonweal on Saturday, July 2 at 2:30 pm." - Thx LF