Hi All,

Today’s adventures took me in and around Marin County once again, but this time to
the Marin Headlands. This is an area that had a very heavy military influence during
the 1960's when everyone thought the bomb was going to drop on us at any moment,
but today it took me to fault line study along the San Andreas Fault with Dr. William
Wright of Sonoma State University. Everywhere you look there are signs of massive
earth upheaval. Spectacular doesn’t even begin to cover it. I saw a rock formation that
stood in height no less than a two story building and about 1000 feet wide. In this
location, the rocks were vertical in slices and had the most beautiful color
arrangements. They have deep ingrained scratches in them in colors of deep brown,
red and blue. I picked up a few to take home for my collection.

However, after this field trip still wanting a little more adventure I took a drive to Tiburon
and hopped on a ferry and took a ride over to Angel Island. This place has a strong
military past as well, which started during the Civil War. As each war emerged a new
section of the island was taken over to create a new base. Today I took a walk from
Ayaya Cove on the northern side of the island to Camp Reynolds on the western side,
which is about two miles. On this walk I saw a huge variety of metamorphic rock
structures and as I got near the barracks at Camp Reynolds spotted several areas with
large pieces of churt nodule. The same kind of rock I acquired from Parkfield. I also
found serpentine and a wall built out of the churt nodule that was exceptionally
beautiful.

Upon reaching Camp Reynolds I met a docent there named Philip Brown. He was
dressed in Civil War attire and gave me a tour of the barracks which is usually off limits
to the public. Later, he let me enjoy being part of a six person team to fire a cannon.
I was appointed the position of “the reamer.” I held this long handled tool which looks
much like a corkscrew, and put it into the barrel of the cannon to clean out any leftover
debris from prior firing. When the cannon was fired, we were instructed to place our
hands over our ears and have our mouths open. It was considerably loud when it was
fired. I was about six feet away from the cannon when it was fired and I could feel the
compression from it. My daughter more than once got a good laugh out of this one. But
I had fun nonetheless.

This was my fifth trip to Angel Island and my first to look at its geologic past. Its quite
interesting, but in the many areas covered by the educational system of this location,
no one is there to talk about geology. I became acquainted with a man named Michael
who was interesting, and found he comes to island to take people on kayak tours.
They have the docents to talk about the military presence, a natural history museum
and a splendid beach. And the deer on the island are quite something when they come
down in the evenings. One day, perhaps someone will approach them about geology
tours. It would be an added benefit for the State of California Parks system for sure.

Glowing from my new sunburn and another adventure, from the Fault Line/San
Andreas........Pat In Petaluma