[Leica] Photos from the Stanford Dish Trails

[richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard)]

The greater Silicon Valley area is highly developed. If you look at one of 
those satellite night light images, the whole peninsula would be lit, from 
San Jose (and beyond) in the south to San Francisco in the north. 
Nevertheless, a couple miles from where you cannot spit without hitting a 
venture capitalist on Sand Hill Road, the Stanford Dish area is a popular 
spot for joggers and hikers. Since it has been hotter than the Macbook 
battery in the last few days around here, I decided to rush up to the 
trails on two separate evenings, an hour before closing times at 8PM to see 
if I can find some magic evening sun.

On both entrances, prominent signs proclaim "Active Mountain Lion Area." I 
am not sure what the stile would do, but certainly not for mountain lions:
http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/072206/crop0008.jpg

Da Dish:
http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/072206/crop0012.jpg
Sadly, that's as close as I got to it, before getting kicked out.

The next day (yesterday) was even hotter!! I approached the Dish from the 
other trail. On this side, they have a special exhibit called "Makin' Hay:"
http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/072206/crop0029.jpg

View of the Stanford Hoover Tower and to the Bay. Up here, it is really 
hard to imagine that the technological center of the world is down there, 
mixed in with the greenery. It's hot and cloudless, probably smoggy too :-(
http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/072206/crop0035.jpg

This side of the trial is even more steep than the others. I don't 
recommend running up under the hot sun the way I did :-) Last view before I 
turned back, with the hot sun right above the Dish:
http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/PICS/072206/crop0001.jpg

Probably will go back a few more times, to actually make it to the Dish at 
some points.

// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
use richard at imagecraft.com)