January 8, 2025 • 44 mins
Travel shaming? That’s now a thing? Say it isn’t so! In this first episode of Take It Outside 2025, Brad and Holly discuss visiting Mexico City, tasting mezcal and cocktails at the bar named Best in the World, the Surgeon General’s alcohol warning (!), and whether or not travel truly changes a person. Plus, travel shaming—what the heck is that? In a year where we need more positive vibes, we’re sticking with why it’s good to get out and have experiences both locally and in points beyond. Later in the podcast, we talk with Marti Tedesco, Senior Manager of Media & Communications for Peninsula Open Space Trust. Marti shares some of her favorite hikes, some updates on new developments for trail systems this coming year, and the 2025 POST Hiking Calendar, which you can get online (complimentary) for some ideas and inspiration.
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2025 POST Hiking Calendar
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome to the weekend schrip of podcast. Take it Outside.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm Brad Day, I'm Holly coolec.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Happy New Year, Brad.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Happy New Year to you too. You beat me to it.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Oh, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I know, is it going to be good?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
TVD big t.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
It'd be good for getting outdoors to explore and have
wonderful adventures and to do some travels, both locally maybe
some points beyond.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I'm going with positive vibe right now, positive.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Vibe friend all around. So, but I mean, before we
jump into twenty twenty five, how was your twenty twenty four?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
It was great.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
I had a great twenty twenty four, no complaints. Yeah,
I just spent Christmas. You would know all about this.
I just spent Smiths in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And how was that?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Fantastic? I mean Mexico haven't been to in a long time.
Usually just go for like last time was for a wedding.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, and where'd you go?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Cankun The couple's lovely.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I don't love cancuon necessarily.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
I don't like battling to try to find a space
on the beach, you know, with people like flexing their
muscles and things like that, that's not.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Your scene, that's not my scene. But what's your scene?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Well, I we well where I went with Sailita, which
is more of a surf town, and I wouldn't say
that's necessarily my scene either, but the place I stayed
was very relaxing.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It was just outside of it.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah, Pia Oscandida. Yeah, I've been doing my due Lingos,
so I've got to get my husband.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Good for you.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I'm on a six day streak.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh that's great.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah. So and then Mexico. I started in Mexico City. Yeah, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I've heard many good things about Mexico City.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Maybe you've been. I loved it.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
I thought that city was fantastic, so filled with energy
and culture, some of the best food I've ever eaten,
walking into like little restaurants that have like a Micheline
rating and they're filled with locals, just casual and you're getting.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Some Michelin rating.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
But and the festivities like that's what this is the
thing I like about travel is that you come back
from places and you have you appreciate things about them, right,
And for Mexico City, it was many things, but one
in particular was just the level of the enthusiasm and
the festiveness of that city. You know. I went to
(02:47):
their Folklore Ballet, which was phenomenal. They do like ninety
minutes pretty much NonStop, so you're not dealing with an intermission,
which I loved. It was beautiful and fun and dynamic.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And then just.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Everybody's walking around downtown in their festive sweaters and like
blinky hats, and.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It was incredible.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
You love that stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I love that stuff, but I just love the energy.
Everybody was out and about.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
And it just was really cool.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So did you have any kind of expectations before this
trip and that kind of like changed your perception of
Mexico or Mexico City.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
No. You know, I'd heard for a long time I
was in Mexico City. I was like a little kid,
So I have no memory of it really, maybe one
the floating gardens, but you always heard people talk about
how great that city is. Yeah, and I was like, yeah, sure,
like I'll go. I wasn't, no, but I didn't. I
was always like, well, I have to have kind of
a reason. I don't know why I thought that, but
maybe I'm going somewhere else and I'll do a stop
(03:47):
over there for a few days, Like, why didn't I
just decide I'm just going to go there anyway for.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Five days or a week.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I only went three this time, because I mean I
had a condensed trip. Yeah, yeah, What are your thoughts
on Mexico City.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I think it's a great I mean, I've also heard
really good things about it, and then it never was
kind of had risen to the top of my must
do travel destinations. But when you actually do take the
time to spend some time there, you're kind of struck
just by I think some of the cliches that you
think of with Mexico where Mexico City is not that
I mean, it's quite urban. It's quite you know. It
(04:28):
has these really beautiful, like leafy neighborhoods, like the Polanco
district for example, where a lot of the embassies are,
and you get these like kind of like oprey dining
scenes that could be a stand in for some town
in Europe. You know, it's just it's really really something.
In the number of museums that they have in Mexico City,
(04:49):
if you're into kind of the cultural aspect of things,
is really remarkable. And of course the food, I mean
Mexican food in general is like, I mean, who doesn't
love Mexican food? But I mean it's just you can
go to some really elevated dining experiences in Mexico City
that really, I mean, you won't have any of the
(05:09):
stuff that we think of in Mexican as far as
Mexican food goes in Mexico City. So yeah, I was.
I was just kind of struck by just kind of
like how it changes your perception on maybe what Mexico
is and the kind of experiences that you can have
in such a dynamic city.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Speaking of experiences, did you go, Yeah, I know you went.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
That shouldn't say?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Did you tell us your experience at the number one
bar in the world for twenty twenty twenty wait, twenty
twenty four best bar in the world twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I don't know how they come up with these lists
because it's kind of crazy, but yeah, had the opportunity
to check out that bar. It's called the Handshake Speakeasy.
If you ever find yourself in Mexico City, I highly
recommend getting a reservation for the Hans Speak Easy because
it's such a cool little spot, is very intimate. I
think maybe it can fit fifteen or twenty people in
(06:07):
there has this kind of like big rectangular seating area
in the middle, so everybody's kind of like looking at
each other. And then on the sides it has like
like couches for like some more intimate conversation hanging out
with your party or whatever. And then they actually do
have bar seating where the bartenders are making all these
like magical cocktails. And I think, you know, I don't
(06:28):
know what is like what makes up for the best
bar in the world. I'm guessing it's you got to
have some like amazing ambiance. You have to have a
lot of creativity in the kind of cocktails that you're serving,
and then there just has to be some kind of
like X factor kind of authenticity.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
About the place. And I did see.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That all that kind of came together in this this bar.
So you get a reservation and you see you have
like ninety minutes to hang out, and they will let
you know when you have like ten minutes left to leave.
But I remember I got a drink that had like
mess scal in it. I don't remember what some of
(07:09):
the other ingredients were, but on top of it, they
had this like little wooden platter on top of the drink,
and this pile of looked like moss or lichen or something.
And then they brought out a lighter and they lit
it and it kind of like sparked a little bit
like a sparkler, and then it kind of like became
smoky and it put on the show for like thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
That was just like phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And then like once it was done burning, they took
the wooden platter off and you had this really smoky,
beautiful mescal drink, which was which was really fun. I
just thought it was a really interesting experience.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
You were talking about the chocolate Negroni too, Yeah, yeah,
I mean I love Negroni's.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's a go to cocktail. But yeah, they.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Infused it with some kind of chocolate that was super tasty.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So does it work like you?
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I imagine it's maybe kind of hard to get a reservation
because it just got named number one bar.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I think so I.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Got online a few weeks before and got that reservation and.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Then you're a limited amount of time, right, so you
should that's that's a good amount of time there, And
it's almost it sounds like it's like a tasting too.
It's not so much like you're slamming back seven cocktails
in full right, You're like it sounds like kind of
paste and you can have it's like sampling.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, you meet people mostly from outside of Mexico who
are traveling to Mexico City to hang out. So it's uh,
it's interesting and lively and you can make it conversational
or you can just hang out with whoever you're with.
But uh, yeah, it's it's interesting because you wouldn't necessarily
(08:43):
think the number one bar in the world is in
Mexico City, but there it is.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
That's so cool. I really like that. I I did
a tequila tasting there.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Actually, I did one very good mess cow tasting at
ply ask Indida Escondida.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Am I saying this? Why as Candida?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
There's no I'm not paid to say that, by the way,
I'm just practicing. But I did him as cal tasting
there and it was great. But I had this idea
in my head. So I was in Mexico about a
week and that the last night there, I got a
bit of a stomach bug, nothing major, and I was convinced,
you know, of course, like, oh tequila, I'm as cal.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Will cure all. I mean, they don't say that, but
they do say that tequila is good for you.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Not the surge in.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
General, No, definitely, not the surge in general, just locals, right,
They're like, oh, it helps with digestion or whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
And it didn't.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
It was tasty and I really enjoyed the opportunity, but
it didn't cure my stomach bug.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Just time fix that. And it was very minor, so
I was lucky.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
But I did another tequila tasting which was basically just
designed to try to get you drunk so that you
went into the.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Gift shop and bought stuff good play after.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Yeah, I didn't really like that tequila very much, so
I was just gently, gingerly sipping.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So with all this tequila and all this drinking that
sounds like you had over the holidays, are you going
to be participating in dry January? Considering the new Surgeon
General warning?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, like no, seriously, I mean I believe it. So
for those of you, I mean, it's all over the news.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
So the Surgeon General has come out and said that
alcohol should be labeled with a warning that's.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Similar to cigarettes. Yeah, that it could cause cancer.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Exactly, And yeah, I think I believe it.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I don't like it, but it's important to know, and
I think we've known this for a while. I mean
it's just it's the third leading preventable cause of cancer,
and it probably should have a warning label.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I mean, so yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
I mean it's not like I'm a lightweight anyways, but
you know, I can get used to drinking tequila on
a vacation. So yes, the bottom line is I will
be more cognizant of how much I'm consuming cognizant.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Do you think having a label on alcohol, like whether
it's beer or wine or spirits, do you think that
makes a difference, Well, a.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Little bit, sure. I don't think it hurts.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
It is sort of like, okay, I mean we've known
about this for a while, right.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I do think I think people definitely know that like
cigarettes cause cancer, right, but can't cause cancer. But with
like alcohol, I don't think there is nearly the same
level of correlation. I just think people think, oh, it's
probably not great for you. But I don't think there's
necessarily this immediate thought that it's there's a direct correlation
(11:37):
to cancer, which is what the Surgeon General is saying.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Yeah, because it's so it seems so culturally accepted on
a lot of levels.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah, yeah, I think it does.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
I mean, I think it's important, and I mean, you know,
I think people will take more note.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
What are what about for you?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Like does it alarm you or are you like, well,
I kind of knew that, I mean anything in moderation.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I didn't actually I didn't necessarily know the direct correlation
to cancer is as you know what he's saying it is. Yeah,
you know, I always knew, Oh, you can like you
can gain weight. It's not great for you. It hurts
your liver, but it's like okay, and women, it can
cause breast cancer, it can cause colon cancer or liver cancer,
a variety of others. It's it was actually kind of surprising.
(12:22):
So yeah, you know, it's January. Maybe I'll participate in
the half Sober January and we'll see reassessing it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, yeah, it is interesting.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Well, moving on, we will be later in this podcast,
we're talking to Marty to Desco, the senior manager of
Media and Communications for Peninsula Open Space Trust. They are
amazing and they do such outstanding work.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Love those guys, I know.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
They're fantastic, and we're going to talk about the brand
new twenty twenty five holiday hiking calendar, which you can
find on our website and also on post website open Space.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
It's a hiking calendar for twenty twenty five, which means
you can like go check off a new hike every month.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And these are all in.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Open spaces that have been protected by Post Peninsula Open
Space Trust. And they're so close. They're like eighty nine,
they're so close to ninety thousand acres of open space
that they've helped protect. They're so close to ninety thousand.
I think they're going to get there this year.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I hope, so I think they will too. Is there.
I don't want to give away.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
The name of the trail, but I know that I
want to do the hike that they have on Pillar
Point Bluff because.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
It's short with sweet views.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah we've done that one.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, Well I want to go back and do it though,
because you can see Mavericks and I know they had
the big competition there.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I don't if it's a competition.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Or people who were just I think they're surfing it.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
They were just surfing it, and I think they said
a twenty three year old Santa Cruz locals may have
surfed the largest.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Wave of ever.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I saw that video is insane.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
One hundred and eight feet or something.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
They're estimating. Yeah, it's over one hundred feet and they're.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Going to have to evaluate if it's the biggest.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I don't know how they do that, really, but I'm
sure there's people who can figure that out. But I mean,
you look at it, like, holy crap. If that guy
like bites it, it's gonna be in for a world
of hurt. But yeah, no, it's that that bluff walk
that you talked about. You can see the Mavericks break happening.
Because Mavericks is not that close to shore. It's kind
of tough to see from shore, but from up there
(14:17):
on the bluff and if you have binoculars you can
get a decent view of it.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yeah, and it's doog friendly. It has some eighty accessibility
as well. Yeah, what about you. I don't want to
give way the name. I want you to download the
calendar and yeah, check it out.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
It's on it.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
We're promoting it on our website right now and we
can sirp A. So yeah, we get to talk with
her in just a little bit. But yeah, no, it's
been you know, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Here we are.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
I'm excited for it. I wanted to ask you about
something we were just talking about travel earlier in the podcast.
Have you heard of like travel shaming. It's basically someone's
schools you for traveling too much.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I had not heard of that.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
This said like a thing that you get travel shamed, Okay,
And there's all kinds of ways that people travel shame.
And it can be you know, you're causing harm to
the environment, you're you know, like for example, you're swimming
with dolphins and you're harming wildlife.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Or it can just be sort.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Of shaming you for traveling too much, right, And there's
all kinds of reasons. Anyway, I saw a story about it,
and the advice in the story was to try to
be empathetic toward the person travel shaming you.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Really, I think it kind.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Of hard to be empathetic if someone's really coming down
on you. But I mean, I think having a conversation.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Is valuable, right for sure, like oh, what do you.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Think about, you know, flying so much or these things?
But yeah, it's kind of interesting, and I just wanted
your take on that.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I think in the world we're living in, shaming somebody
for travel shaming kind of seems like much ado about nothing,
to be honest, Like if you're if you're on a
flight with two hundred and fifty other people, I don't
know' that's essentially it's not public transportation. But it's not
like you're hiring a private jet to go from one
place another like a lot of executives could potentially do, right.
(16:13):
I mean, if somebody's travel shaming you, are they also
part of the problem. Are they taking public transportation to
their work or are they driving their own car?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It's a bit of a slippery slope when you start
like pointing fingers at people and shaming them on stuff,
that's like, okay, if this is what brings them happiness
or joy to go have new experiences and spend their
money on that rather than on maybe a new couch
or whatever, some kind of material something, then you know,
(16:42):
just like maybe check yourself, because it's everybody wants to
spend their money and derives pleasure from that in different ways.
And for some people it's travel and experiences, and for
other people it's cars and other things, and it's like,
who are you to judge?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
I think that's her.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I think there's some careers, like I know, I I'm
always like, why do people have to do big game hunting?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Travel? But that's the game I mentioned animal.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Like, when you say hunting, do you mean like, quote
unquote like looking for it or do you mean like shooting?
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I think shooting looking, But you know, like I think
sometimes people go on like I understand hunting, Like I
lived in Alaska for a while many years ago, and
people would hunt for food for winter, you know, and
like trophy.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, exactly, So trophy.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Hunting is what I'm getting. And I'm kind of like,
I don't I don't love that. I really don't like
that form of.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
So, yeah, there's great, but I see what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
I think it's a little bit it can get very
gosh like we're going to finger wag about that. There's
so many things that that are going on in the
world right now. But I did think it was just
such an interesting story. I hadn't really seen that before.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I haven't here that well.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Do you think I have one more question about that?
Do you think travel changes? You know, people say, oh,
I went somewhere and I was changed. What are your
thoughts on that, because I don't want to diminish somebody
saying that, like, I think that's a valid if it
changed you.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
But I'm just curious, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, I don't know. I think sometimes when you hear
that it I feel a little bit like hashtag blessed.
It feels a little bit like sanctimonious, like aren't I great?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
And it can kind of give off that vibe a
little bit. But having said that, when you do travel,
you do end up having these experiences that change your
perception of a place, most likely if you've never been
there and it's like, Okay, I didn't realize, for example,
Mexico City was going to be like what Mexico City was,
(18:42):
or like going to a few months ago, I had
the opportunity to go to Peru and hike the Inca Trail.
I kind of had an idea. But when you actually
do it, you do get this appreciation and this perspective
that was different than what it was going into it.
So does it change you?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Maybe it definitely changes your perception of the place and
perhaps your worldview a little bit, so maybe that has changed.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, No, I agree. I think it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I'd love our readers, if you're our readers or listeners.
Readers and listeners, write in and let us know, because
I think it's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Like I believe some people go.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
And they're like, I had this magical experience and it
changed something about me. Yeah, personally, Like I think for me,
if I travel, it is more about maybe coming away
with the new discoverer appreciation of something that I really
valued about the right experience, and I guess that is
a form of change.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Anyway.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
You can write into us at adventure at weekendsure dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Let us know how travel has changed you or not
changed or maybe not.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Or just what your thoughts are. Yeah, or if you
want a travel shame, go ahead, Yeah, please please don't.
We've got enough one on in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
But let's get to our conversation with Marty and talk
about this in twenty five hiking Calendar.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
We're delighted to be joined on today's podcast by Marty Todesco,
the senior manager of Media and Communications at the Peninsula
Open Space Trust.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Great to have you on the pod.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Marty, Thank you so much for having me. I've been
looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well we've been exploring you know, open space, peninsula, open
space trust lands for for years and writing about it.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And you you, you work with.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Some amazing open spaces all over the San Francisco Peninsula area.
I mean, it's just kind of like where do you
where do you even begin? So i'll, you know, we'll
kind of start with you and tell us a little
bit about a little bit about Post and uh, you know,
kind of what's what's new for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Sure, so Post.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
You know that when you think about the San Francisco
Bay Area, you've got this beautiful city that sits at
the end of this peninsula, but you don't really think
about like what makes up that peninsula.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
And that peninsula is the.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Santa Cruz Mountains, and it's like such a unique place
because it's sort of where it's like the southern end
of the Redwood Forest and it just trickles all the
way down just past Santa Cruz. And you know, once
upon a time, Silicon Valley was coming up and it
was just grow, grow, grow, and pave it over and
(21:30):
let's build.
Speaker 6 (21:31):
And people here.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Started to see what was happening in other parts of
the state, and they just said, hey, hold up, I
don't think we want that to happen here.
Speaker 6 (21:40):
We don't think we want that to happen here.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
And so the people of San Mateo County put a
thing on the ballot in nineteen seventy two to create
something called the Mid Peninsula Regional Open Space District. It's
a government district paid for by taxpayer dollars. Well, that
passed resoundingly, so that was all great. They get to
work and they realize, because they're a public agency, private
(22:04):
landowners don't really want to work with them because every
conversation has to be open to the public. So they said,
you know, we really need a private arm to work
with landowners and to identify kind of be out front
identifying lands that make sense for conservation purposes, for you know, biodiversity.
(22:26):
At the time, we weren't even thinking about climate change resilience, right,
we were thinking about our viewshed and our watersheds, but
biodiversity for sure, and also for public access.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
And that's how POST.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
Was formed in nineteen ninety seven as a private, nonprofit
accredited land trust. So handful of people, you know, what's
the old quote, A handful of people just taking action.
And it was you know, literally folks like Ward Pain
and Christie Holloway and Herb Branch and a bunch of
(23:00):
you know, folks in.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
The seventies who just had this vision for how we
could be different.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
And now you know, you fly into SFO, you fly
into San Jose and you see this incredible you know,
built urban infrastructure, these hubs of innovation, and surrounding it
all is amazing green belt.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And I mean, to date, I believe you protected over
eighty nine thousand acres of open space. And as I
was saying earlier, it just keeps going up, which is phenomenal.
And this is forever right, it's a permanent network of
protected land. So I mean that's in San Francisco Peninsula,
South Bay, and I mean that's just such a phenomenal
(23:41):
initiative and a great background of like how you can
make this sea change essentially with a small group of people.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Yeah, and you know it's not just POST that's keeping
up that network. It's state parks, it's county parks, it's
the Open Space District, it's other land trusts like US
you know, like people like Save the Redwoods and Sembervirons
Fund and Land Trust to Santa Cruz County. So it's
this whole network that works together, you know, like like
(24:13):
a ball team. You know, we're all playing different positions
and we're trying to work together to make this, you know,
not only just a you know, a moment of protection,
but also restoration, long term stewardship, long term public access,
all of those things that take various skill sets for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
So how did I mean that's a great mission.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
How did you get involved with Post?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Ah?
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Well, I had I had the great good fortune to
land here as a kid, roaming around the Santa Cruz
Mountains and doing things we probably shouldn't have done to
banana slugs.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
And then and then I ended up here raising my family.
I took some time off from tech to raise our
two kids, and I would get these things in my
mailbox from POST.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
And I was like, great, I'm a little donor. I'm
given to them. And then you know, two thousand and.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Eight happened and they just disappeared, and you know, fast forward,
kids grew up, I go back to work, and this
job at POST comes across you know on LinkedIn, and
it just kept coming through, and I'm like, ah, I'm
not a nonprofit person. But then when I my good
friend Linda goes you gotta do it, So okay, great,
(25:29):
I take an interview, and when I understood what Post
was trying to do, which was to really expand the
community of people who care about conservation, not just expand
their donor base, but expand people of all kinds, all
communities up and down the peninsula, and increase their personal
(25:50):
connection to open space, their personal value of it. Then
that does two things. Not only do we engage donors,
but we get the community members. When things come across,
you know, their ballot box, like Prop four that just passed,
they're more likely to vote on it because they're connected
to how that changes their lives and what that means
(26:11):
to them locally. So we the mission was really to
grow our community, to diversify our community, and to make
this kind of venerable brand that was posted, to open
it up to everybody who wants to be connected to conservation,
(26:33):
not just the few who kind of live along the
green belt and could give a lot of money, but
to open up to anybody who wanted.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
In the tent. So you know that's I was just like, well,
yes to that.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I got to take, you know, my marketing skills that
came from tech and apply them to one of the
best products I've ever had the privilege of selling or
marketing to anybody, and that's open space and nature.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, that's what you know. I think that's so smart.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
The more that you can connect with people and get
them out doors and visiting your parks, the more likely
they are to support you and your mission down the road.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
However that appears, whether it's.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Propositions or even donating money or being a part of
your subscriber list. No, I'm sure this might be a
challenging question, but it might be like picking a favorite child.
But I'm sure you've gone out on many trails that
are protected by post name. If you could just a
few spots that you particularly love.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Okay, well, my go to is Wendy Hill. Beautiful Windy
Hill open space preserved. But my personal favorite on Windy
Hill is taking the Ham's Gould Trail up to Lost
Trail to raise or back and down. It's about a
seven and a half eight miler Oh yeah, neither direction.
(28:01):
But I mean there's no bikes on that trail, so
it's a little easier.
Speaker 6 (28:06):
The face is great.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I love doing the Spring Ridge Trail on Windy, especially
at this time of year when it's not too hot,
on one of those great winter days where you need
a little vitamin D. That's when you get to go
up the face of Windy and kind of just feel
the sun on your body and then maybe come down Hamskulch.
So that one's really.
Speaker 6 (28:26):
Close to me.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
I do it almost every week, but my favorite favorite
is Long Ridge. Long Ridge open Space preserved managed by Midpen.
Speaker 6 (28:37):
You know, you're.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
Up off of skyline, you kind of drop down, you
go along this beautiful creek and now's a great time
in the fall or winter when there's water. You go
along the creek and then you go up and around
the knoll and then you emerge in this like sound
of music, three sixty view. There's the Stagner Bench up
(29:00):
you're looking out at the butte and No Ridge, you're
looking out at the Pacific.
Speaker 6 (29:03):
It's amazing, great for mountain bikers.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
Not super from an elevation standpoint, so it's pretty accessible
to all kinds of people, and it's like a it's
like a nice five mile miler, but it's just so beautiful,
and you go through all these different habitats and it's just,
I don't know, never never disappoints.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
Yeah, oh those are great.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Those are I mean, you have so much good stuff
to choose from. I'm sure it's hard just to pick
a few. When you were talking about Windy Hill, I
don't get there a lot, But when I do, I'm
telling you, the sunset, it's just at this time of
year especially, it's just a captivating and beautiful I just can't, like,
I'm like, okay, get off your phone, don't take photos,
just enjoy the moment, because I just want to, like,
(29:48):
you know, get the like selfie of this incredible sunset.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
Yeah. Beautiful there. Yeah, I mean you can't.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
You really can't go wrong at any of the preserves
off of Skyline Drive or Highway thirty five, because you know,
looking to the east, you have this panoramic view of
the bay. To the west, you have a panorama of
you know, basically the San Andreas area rolling down to
the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
You just can't go wrong.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
There's and there's gosh, there's a dozen preserves up there.
Speaker 6 (30:21):
You can't go wrong.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's true that you don't want to.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
Climb up hill, in which case you're out of luck.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
No, I mean Highway thirty five. That has to be
one of the best trailhead highways in the entire state
of California. I mean, there's just so many spots to
go hiking or mountain biking. It's it's incredible. I'm also
partial to a lot of your coastal open spaces. You
were part of helping to protect the cow Prisma Trail, correct, Yeah, yeah,
(30:49):
I remember riding about that early days we can Surpa
when that was.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
A cow bell Yeah, I remember that because you were
key back and you were like, I just this new trail.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
It's phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, that one is so cool.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
I mean, yeah, that's that's really a beautiful spot, as
is Devil Slide Trail. Amazing to see how that got
transitioned over from a highway to a to just a beautiful,
beautiful walking trail that people can go enjoy. Yeah, I mean,
(31:24):
both of those are really really phenomenal.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
Well, you know.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
It is.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Back in the nineties, our former president Audrey Rusk, she
got this big, audacious vision to do one hundred million
dollar campaign called saving the Endangered Coast. And you know
two organizations, the More Foundation and the Packard Foundation. Between
the two of them, they each gave us twenty five
million dollars and then we raised another fifty million dollars
(31:53):
from individuals and the state and everywhere, and a lot
of what you experienced today. If you're driving south from
half Moon Bay to the Santa Cruz County line, you
have almost I think it's like between thirty or forty
miles without a stop sign, and that's because of those protections.
Now doesn't hold on to these properties. We tend to
(32:14):
transition them to state parks, county parks, open space agencies,
or cities, you know, and.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
There's just no end to what's available out there on
the coast.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
And Cowell is so cool because the cal Parisma Trail,
because you have this farmland right next to you, so
you have an active farm, it's John Juicey's farm, thrust sprouts,
arted chokes, you've got the Pacific Ocean, you know, like whales, birds,
you name it. And the trail is pretty flat, bikes,
(32:50):
great for strollers, great for people who don't want to
do hills, and it's great for like this time of year.
We don't know what to do with the family or
the elders that maybe don't want to go on an
extreme hike. And then you go to lunch and half
Moon Bay and get that artichoke bread and you're good.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
Where do you go for bread in half Moon Bay?
The farm? Oh? You go to gosh, I'll think of it.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
It's a sandwich shop right in the middle of the
main street of half of It.
Speaker 6 (33:17):
I'll put it in the past.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Yeah, let me, I'm gonna I'm gonna get you the
name of it here.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
I love like post hike eating.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah, yeah, as an after hike.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Yeah. Oh yeah, well there that was a.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
Yeah, I'll put it in the chat. It's it's called Archangelie.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
No perfect now tell us. I mean, I don't know
if you're what's going on. I saw lots of different
headlines over the last couple of years regarding Martin's Beach.
What can you tell us what the latest is with that?
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Well, you know, Post isn't involved in any way with
Martin's Beach. Okay, but that was all going on in
twenty seventeen when we got a call from then supervisor
Don Horsley, and he had had this local group that
was trying to get on his docket to say, Hey,
there's this beach south of Martin's Beach called Tanita's Creek Beach.
Speaker 6 (34:24):
It's gone off on social media. It's super steep.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
Getting down there. There's an old dilapidated house. People are
having raives. It's like burning man. Like the Plia comes
to San Mateo County. Right, they were leaving whole generators,
entire camps. They were just trashing this beach.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Right.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
So Don calls us and says, can you do anything?
And we're like, yeah, we can. So we came up
with five million dollars to buy the fifty eight acre parcel,
and then we worked with San Mateo County Parks to
immediately begin put trolling the park, and as part of that,
they started patrolling the cal Parisma trail so it could
(35:06):
be open seven days a week instead of just on
weekends cool. And then we've since transferred it to them.
We've raised like twelve million bucks to help San Mateo
County Parks build their newest county park that's opening next year.
Speaker 6 (35:21):
When called it's called.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Dawn Horseley County Park at Tanita's Creek Beach fantastic. Yeah,
it's really like so to us, it's like we watched
Martin's Beach for like, let's not do that. Let's make
sure somebody else doesn't do that here, and let's take
this beautiful piece of I mean, it's where Tanita's Creek
(35:47):
flows into the Pacific. It's got this soaring rock well
sandstone cliff to the north. You know, millennia of history
from being an Alnean to people trying to slide redwood
timbers down a chute in the early nineteen hundreds, you know,
(36:11):
to then we bought the house from Chris Isaac who
was not living there and it was totally dilapidated because
there was no water light had taken out the water
to the property. And now it's going to be this
beach with safe parking, ada accessibility, amazing place to bring
(36:32):
you know, your family, your school group. It's going to
have a one point five mile trail on the south
end down to the beach. You used to have to
repel down a rope in the so you know, those
are the types of things where you know, it's a
real public private combo of making this project come together.
(36:56):
And it was just not really an accident, but a
series of people knowing who to call.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
And that's where post.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
Being a little bit more nimble, being private, we could
we could zoom in protect it and work.
Speaker 6 (37:10):
On this deal. Yeah, in the public park.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
So I'm not sure what's happening today on Martin's Beach.
Really looking forward to opening this project with County Parks
in a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
It's going to open up in a few weeks.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
Well, you know that the timeline keeps moving.
Speaker 5 (37:30):
That's awesome ause of this point, the long pole in
the tent is the fabrication of guardrails, and you probably going.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
To have to remove the repelling rope too. I imagine the.
Speaker 6 (37:41):
Repelling rope is gone. Yeah, redwood whatever.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
I remember when I was early days, we can sure.
I mean, it's such a the way you described it,
Marty is really beautiful. And when you're driving on the highway,
on Highway one, you do see this beach and it's like, wow,
what what is that? And I remember stopping as a
potential we can surp a story. Uh, this is you know,
several years ago and I repelled down that rope and
(38:10):
as soon as and in the middle of the repel,
I was like we're not writing about this. We can't
write about this and good conscious. So I'm glad to
see that it's being turned that you guys are involved,
and it's going to become a beautiful park for everybody
to enjoy without the repelling.
Speaker 6 (38:27):
Yeah, without the repelling.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Sure, a fantastic thing to look forward to in the
new year.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, speaking of.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
New Years, Uh, you have a hiking calendar. Yes, as
an editor, I'm actually you know, I've been I've been
studying up on which I love your calendar. It's a
go to every year. It's your you know, the Post
twenty twenty five hiking calendar. I think it's a must
have every year because it's both inspiring and super helpful.
Speaker 6 (38:58):
Like if you want to go hiking, if you're.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Just like, you know, I'm busy, but I need to
do a hike a month at least. You know, this
is the calendar. I mean, you're gonna want to do
like many more because of how good calendars. But it's
just got to me such great hikes for the season,
So you know, like, Okay, it's January, it's this hike.
This is why it's good. Now, this is what to
look for. This is what to expect, and just even
(39:24):
very helpful and full like what mileage, what's the terrain?
Like you know, it's the easy, difficult, more challenging, eighty accessibility,
great information, you know.
Speaker 6 (39:34):
Dog friendly or not.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I just I love the calendar.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
I think it's fantastic, and I wanted to hear about like,
you know how you guys work on that every year
and if you're gonna if you're willing to drop a
couple of hints about maybe if a few of the
hikes you might find in there.
Speaker 6 (39:51):
Yeah, well I think you just said it, which is
you can you can just go out for a hike.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
A lot of people never make it though, right They think, well,
I'd like to try it, but there's this sort.
Speaker 6 (40:06):
Of mental barrier of where do I go? How do
I do it?
Speaker 5 (40:09):
Maybe I'm not experienced hiker, Maybe I'm not comfortable with
going someplace new.
Speaker 6 (40:15):
So it's kind of.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
That whole equation of using this guide that's really accessible
to make the outdoors accessible to people who might not
otherwise do it right, so you can go there, you
can say, ah, first hike that we have for twenty
twenty five the gene Lour Trail at Pillar Point Bluff.
So Pillar Point is that bluff that looks out over
(40:37):
where the Mavericks serve competition. I don't know if they
still have it, but it used to be out there
by Princeton, by the sea, by the Halfman Bay Airport.
Dog friendly, bike friendly, stroller friendly, just really super accessible.
And if that to break down the barriers, whether they
(41:02):
you know, real or imagined, to get folks outside. And
then the other part is, you know, just don't just
go out there and like do the thing, what to
look for, how to connect with the landscape and in
those seasons because it's always changing. You know, we have
a similar guide for wild flowers, and that's always super
(41:24):
popular because like it's so ephemeral. You know, these things,
they're not all they're not always out there. So you
could go out to you could go out to Pillar
Point Bluff. You could go out there in a day
that's absolutely socked in. You could go out on a
day where you're you're saying, eighty miles up and down
the coast and everything in between, you know, and it's
it's just not that far and it's not that hard
(41:46):
to get to. So you know, we do it once
a year and when you sign up for that, then
you get an email from us every month reminding you
about your hike of the month too, So you know,
all the little things combined just hopefully break down barriers
and get people more comfortable getting.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Out out there.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
And it's you know, it's become kind of a tradition
where we do our annual top ten list fore wee
can Sirpa, and we promote the Post Hiking calendar for
that year for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
So I believe this podcast.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Is going to be going live when the top ten
list comes out, as well as promotion for your upcoming calendar,
and people can find it on our website or they
can find it at openspace trust dot org. And then
you'll be in the inner circle of friends with Post
and get all of the good stuff, including some of
(42:43):
their favorite hikes, and you'll have a hike every month
for twenty twenty five if you download that calendar, which
we highly recommend.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
It's so nice to me, Marty, I really have tremendous
respect for the work that you're doing. I do have
one more question in addition to you know, getting involved
through like hiking in obviously getting the calendars, which are
so worth it. How else can people get involved with Post?
Speaker 6 (43:06):
We have there's a lot of different ways, you know.
Speaker 5 (43:09):
The easiest thing is join our email list, learn something
every month, find a place to go every month, follow
us on social media, so minimal, right.
Speaker 6 (43:21):
If you want to move out from there. We have
a ton of events. We're running like five.
Speaker 5 (43:26):
We run ambassador led hikes every week. We always have
like ten a month. We have lots of other events,
movies online, we have thing coming in up in January.
We have Fungi fundamentals. We have a fung Guy expert
coming online that's online, so you just log in and
learn about the fabulous fun guy. So there's events, there's
(43:50):
ways to learn, and you can of course donate to posts.
That's really easy online, do it on your phone. And
you can always vote for environmental measures that fund our
partners that take care of these these lands, you know,
long after Post has left the picture.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Very cool. That's great. Well, thank you so much, Marty.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
It's been a pleasure to have you on the podcast
today and telling us more about Posts and all the
good stuff going on, and sharing a couple of tidbits
of your favorite places to get outdoors.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
Well, thanks for having me and I've been a huge
fan of weekend shurpas for many years and keep up
the good work and getting people outside.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Thanks Marty,
Welcome to the weekend schrip of podcast. Take it Outside.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm Brad Day, I'm Holly coolec.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Happy New Year, Brad.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Happy New Year to you too. You beat me to it.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Oh, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I know, is it going to be good?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
TVD big t.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
It'd be good for getting outdoors to explore and have
wonderful adventures and to do some travels, both locally maybe
some points beyond.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I'm going with positive vibe right now, positive.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Vibe friend all around. So, but I mean, before we
jump into twenty twenty five, how was your twenty twenty four?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
It was great.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
I had a great twenty twenty four, no complaints. Yeah,
I just spent Christmas. You would know all about this.
I just spent Smiths in Mexico.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And how was that?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well?
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Fantastic? I mean Mexico haven't been to in a long time.
Usually just go for like last time was for a wedding.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, and where'd you go?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Cankun The couple's lovely.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I don't love cancuon necessarily.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
I don't like battling to try to find a space
on the beach, you know, with people like flexing their
muscles and things like that, that's not.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Your scene, that's not my scene. But what's your scene?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Well, I we well where I went with Sailita, which
is more of a surf town, and I wouldn't say
that's necessarily my scene either, but the place I stayed
was very relaxing.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It was just outside of it.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah, Pia Oscandida. Yeah, I've been doing my due Lingos,
so I've got to get my husband.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Good for you.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I'm on a six day streak.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh that's great.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah. So and then Mexico. I started in Mexico City. Yeah, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
I've heard many good things about Mexico City.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Maybe you've been. I loved it.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
I thought that city was fantastic, so filled with energy
and culture, some of the best food I've ever eaten,
walking into like little restaurants that have like a Micheline
rating and they're filled with locals, just casual and you're getting.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Some Michelin rating.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
But and the festivities like that's what this is the
thing I like about travel is that you come back
from places and you have you appreciate things about them, right,
And for Mexico City, it was many things, but one
in particular was just the level of the enthusiasm and
the festiveness of that city. You know. I went to
(02:47):
their Folklore Ballet, which was phenomenal. They do like ninety
minutes pretty much NonStop, so you're not dealing with an intermission,
which I loved. It was beautiful and fun and dynamic.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And then just.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Everybody's walking around downtown in their festive sweaters and like
blinky hats, and.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It was incredible.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
You love that stuff.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I love that stuff, but I just love the energy.
Everybody was out and about.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
And it just was really cool.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So did you have any kind of expectations before this
trip and that kind of like changed your perception of
Mexico or Mexico City.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
No. You know, I'd heard for a long time I
was in Mexico City. I was like a little kid,
So I have no memory of it really, maybe one
the floating gardens, but you always heard people talk about
how great that city is. Yeah, and I was like, yeah, sure,
like I'll go. I wasn't, no, but I didn't. I
was always like, well, I have to have kind of
a reason. I don't know why I thought that, but
maybe I'm going somewhere else and I'll do a stop
(03:47):
over there for a few days, Like, why didn't I
just decide I'm just going to go there anyway for.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Five days or a week.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I only went three this time, because I mean I
had a condensed trip. Yeah, yeah, What are your thoughts
on Mexico City.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I think it's a great I mean, I've also heard
really good things about it, and then it never was
kind of had risen to the top of my must
do travel destinations. But when you actually do take the
time to spend some time there, you're kind of struck
just by I think some of the cliches that you
think of with Mexico where Mexico City is not that
I mean, it's quite urban. It's quite you know. It
(04:28):
has these really beautiful, like leafy neighborhoods, like the Polanco
district for example, where a lot of the embassies are,
and you get these like kind of like oprey dining
scenes that could be a stand in for some town
in Europe. You know, it's just it's really really something.
In the number of museums that they have in Mexico City,
(04:49):
if you're into kind of the cultural aspect of things,
is really remarkable. And of course the food, I mean
Mexican food in general is like, I mean, who doesn't
love Mexican food? But I mean it's just you can
go to some really elevated dining experiences in Mexico City
that really, I mean, you won't have any of the
(05:09):
stuff that we think of in Mexican as far as
Mexican food goes in Mexico City. So yeah, I was.
I was just kind of struck by just kind of
like how it changes your perception on maybe what Mexico
is and the kind of experiences that you can have
in such a dynamic city.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Speaking of experiences, did you go, Yeah, I know you went.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
That shouldn't say?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Did you tell us your experience at the number one
bar in the world for twenty twenty twenty wait, twenty
twenty four best bar in the world twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I don't know how they come up with these lists
because it's kind of crazy, but yeah, had the opportunity
to check out that bar. It's called the Handshake Speakeasy.
If you ever find yourself in Mexico City, I highly
recommend getting a reservation for the Hans Speak Easy because
it's such a cool little spot, is very intimate. I
think maybe it can fit fifteen or twenty people in
(06:07):
there has this kind of like big rectangular seating area
in the middle, so everybody's kind of like looking at
each other. And then on the sides it has like
like couches for like some more intimate conversation hanging out
with your party or whatever. And then they actually do
have bar seating where the bartenders are making all these
like magical cocktails. And I think, you know, I don't
(06:28):
know what is like what makes up for the best
bar in the world. I'm guessing it's you got to
have some like amazing ambiance. You have to have a
lot of creativity in the kind of cocktails that you're serving,
and then there just has to be some kind of
like X factor kind of authenticity.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
About the place. And I did see.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That all that kind of came together in this this bar.
So you get a reservation and you see you have
like ninety minutes to hang out, and they will let
you know when you have like ten minutes left to leave.
But I remember I got a drink that had like
mess scal in it. I don't remember what some of
(07:09):
the other ingredients were, but on top of it, they
had this like little wooden platter on top of the drink,
and this pile of looked like moss or lichen or something.
And then they brought out a lighter and they lit
it and it kind of like sparked a little bit
like a sparkler, and then it kind of like became
smoky and it put on the show for like thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
That was just like phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And then like once it was done burning, they took
the wooden platter off and you had this really smoky,
beautiful mescal drink, which was which was really fun. I
just thought it was a really interesting experience.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
You were talking about the chocolate Negroni too, Yeah, yeah,
I mean I love Negroni's.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's a go to cocktail. But yeah, they.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Infused it with some kind of chocolate that was super tasty.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So does it work like you?
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I imagine it's maybe kind of hard to get a reservation
because it just got named number one bar.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I think so I.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Got online a few weeks before and got that reservation and.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Then you're a limited amount of time, right, so you
should that's that's a good amount of time there, And
it's almost it sounds like it's like a tasting too.
It's not so much like you're slamming back seven cocktails
in full right, You're like it sounds like kind of
paste and you can have it's like sampling.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, you meet people mostly from outside of Mexico who
are traveling to Mexico City to hang out. So it's uh,
it's interesting and lively and you can make it conversational
or you can just hang out with whoever you're with.
But uh, yeah, it's it's interesting because you wouldn't necessarily
(08:43):
think the number one bar in the world is in
Mexico City, but there it is.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
That's so cool. I really like that. I I did
a tequila tasting there.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Actually, I did one very good mess cow tasting at
ply ask Indida Escondida.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Am I saying this? Why as Candida?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
There's no I'm not paid to say that, by the way,
I'm just practicing. But I did him as cal tasting
there and it was great. But I had this idea
in my head. So I was in Mexico about a
week and that the last night there, I got a
bit of a stomach bug, nothing major, and I was convinced,
you know, of course, like, oh tequila, I'm as cal.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Will cure all. I mean, they don't say that, but
they do say that tequila is good for you.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Not the surge in.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
General, No, definitely, not the surge in general, just locals, right,
They're like, oh, it helps with digestion or whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
And it didn't.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
It was tasty and I really enjoyed the opportunity, but
it didn't cure my stomach bug.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Just time fix that. And it was very minor, so
I was lucky.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
But I did another tequila tasting which was basically just
designed to try to get you drunk so that you
went into the.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Gift shop and bought stuff good play after.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Yeah, I didn't really like that tequila very much, so
I was just gently, gingerly sipping.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So with all this tequila and all this drinking that
sounds like you had over the holidays, are you going
to be participating in dry January? Considering the new Surgeon
General warning?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah, like no, seriously, I mean I believe it. So
for those of you, I mean, it's all over the news.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
So the Surgeon General has come out and said that
alcohol should be labeled with a warning that's.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Similar to cigarettes. Yeah, that it could cause cancer.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Exactly, And yeah, I think I believe it.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I don't like it, but it's important to know, and
I think we've known this for a while. I mean
it's just it's the third leading preventable cause of cancer,
and it probably should have a warning label.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I mean, so yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
I mean it's not like I'm a lightweight anyways, but
you know, I can get used to drinking tequila on
a vacation. So yes, the bottom line is I will
be more cognizant of how much I'm consuming cognizant.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Do you think having a label on alcohol, like whether
it's beer or wine or spirits, do you think that
makes a difference, Well, a.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Little bit, sure. I don't think it hurts.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
It is sort of like, okay, I mean we've known
about this for a while, right.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I do think I think people definitely know that like
cigarettes cause cancer, right, but can't cause cancer. But with
like alcohol, I don't think there is nearly the same
level of correlation. I just think people think, oh, it's
probably not great for you. But I don't think there's
necessarily this immediate thought that it's there's a direct correlation
(11:37):
to cancer, which is what the Surgeon General is saying.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Yeah, because it's so it seems so culturally accepted on
a lot of levels.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah, yeah, I think it does.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
I mean, I think it's important, and I mean, you know,
I think people will take more note.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
What are what about for you?
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Like does it alarm you or are you like, well,
I kind of knew that, I mean anything in moderation.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I didn't actually I didn't necessarily know the direct correlation
to cancer is as you know what he's saying it is. Yeah,
you know, I always knew, Oh, you can like you
can gain weight. It's not great for you. It hurts
your liver, but it's like okay, and women, it can
cause breast cancer, it can cause colon cancer or liver cancer,
a variety of others. It's it was actually kind of surprising.
(12:22):
So yeah, you know, it's January. Maybe I'll participate in
the half Sober January and we'll see reassessing it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, yeah, it is interesting.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Well, moving on, we will be later in this podcast,
we're talking to Marty to Desco, the senior manager of
Media and Communications for Peninsula Open Space Trust. They are
amazing and they do such outstanding work.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Love those guys, I know.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
They're fantastic, and we're going to talk about the brand
new twenty twenty five holiday hiking calendar, which you can
find on our website and also on post website open Space.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
It's a hiking calendar for twenty twenty five, which means
you can like go check off a new hike every month.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And these are all in.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Open spaces that have been protected by Post Peninsula Open
Space Trust. And they're so close. They're like eighty nine,
they're so close to ninety thousand acres of open space
that they've helped protect. They're so close to ninety thousand.
I think they're going to get there this year.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I hope, so I think they will too. Is there.
I don't want to give away.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
The name of the trail, but I know that I
want to do the hike that they have on Pillar
Point Bluff because.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
It's short with sweet views.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah we've done that one.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, Well I want to go back and do it though,
because you can see Mavericks and I know they had
the big competition there.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I don't if it's a competition.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Or people who were just I think they're surfing it.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
They were just surfing it, and I think they said
a twenty three year old Santa Cruz locals may have
surfed the largest.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Wave of ever.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I saw that video is insane.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
One hundred and eight feet or something.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
They're estimating. Yeah, it's over one hundred feet and they're.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Going to have to evaluate if it's the biggest.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I don't know how they do that, really, but I'm
sure there's people who can figure that out. But I mean,
you look at it, like, holy crap. If that guy
like bites it, it's gonna be in for a world
of hurt. But yeah, no, it's that that bluff walk
that you talked about. You can see the Mavericks break happening.
Because Mavericks is not that close to shore. It's kind
of tough to see from shore, but from up there
(14:17):
on the bluff and if you have binoculars you can
get a decent view of it.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Yeah, and it's doog friendly. It has some eighty accessibility
as well. Yeah, what about you. I don't want to
give way the name. I want you to download the
calendar and yeah, check it out.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
It's on it.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
We're promoting it on our website right now and we
can sirp A. So yeah, we get to talk with
her in just a little bit. But yeah, no, it's
been you know, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Here we are.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
I'm excited for it. I wanted to ask you about
something we were just talking about travel earlier in the podcast.
Have you heard of like travel shaming. It's basically someone's
schools you for traveling too much.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I had not heard of that.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
This said like a thing that you get travel shamed, Okay,
And there's all kinds of ways that people travel shame.
And it can be you know, you're causing harm to
the environment, you're you know, like for example, you're swimming
with dolphins and you're harming wildlife.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Or it can just be sort.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Of shaming you for traveling too much, right, And there's
all kinds of reasons. Anyway, I saw a story about it,
and the advice in the story was to try to
be empathetic toward the person travel shaming you.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Really, I think it kind.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Of hard to be empathetic if someone's really coming down
on you. But I mean, I think having a conversation.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Is valuable, right for sure, like oh, what do you.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Think about, you know, flying so much or these things?
But yeah, it's kind of interesting, and I just wanted
your take on that.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I think in the world we're living in, shaming somebody
for travel shaming kind of seems like much ado about nothing,
to be honest, Like if you're if you're on a
flight with two hundred and fifty other people, I don't
know' that's essentially it's not public transportation. But it's not
like you're hiring a private jet to go from one
place another like a lot of executives could potentially do, right.
(16:13):
I mean, if somebody's travel shaming you, are they also
part of the problem. Are they taking public transportation to
their work or are they driving their own car?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
It's a bit of a slippery slope when you start
like pointing fingers at people and shaming them on stuff,
that's like, okay, if this is what brings them happiness
or joy to go have new experiences and spend their
money on that rather than on maybe a new couch
or whatever, some kind of material something, then you know,
(16:42):
just like maybe check yourself, because it's everybody wants to
spend their money and derives pleasure from that in different ways.
And for some people it's travel and experiences, and for
other people it's cars and other things, and it's like,
who are you to judge?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
I think that's her.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I think there's some careers, like I know, I I'm
always like, why do people have to do big game hunting?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Travel? But that's the game I mentioned animal.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Like, when you say hunting, do you mean like, quote
unquote like looking for it or do you mean like shooting?
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I think shooting looking, But you know, like I think
sometimes people go on like I understand hunting, Like I
lived in Alaska for a while many years ago, and
people would hunt for food for winter, you know, and
like trophy.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, exactly, So trophy.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Hunting is what I'm getting. And I'm kind of like,
I don't I don't love that. I really don't like
that form of.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
So, yeah, there's great, but I see what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
I think it's a little bit it can get very
gosh like we're going to finger wag about that. There's
so many things that that are going on in the
world right now. But I did think it was just
such an interesting story. I hadn't really seen that before.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I haven't here that well.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Do you think I have one more question about that?
Do you think travel changes? You know, people say, oh,
I went somewhere and I was changed. What are your
thoughts on that, because I don't want to diminish somebody
saying that, like, I think that's a valid if it
changed you.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
But I'm just curious, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, I don't know. I think sometimes when you hear
that it I feel a little bit like hashtag blessed.
It feels a little bit like sanctimonious, like aren't I great?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
And it can kind of give off that vibe a
little bit. But having said that, when you do travel,
you do end up having these experiences that change your
perception of a place, most likely if you've never been
there and it's like, Okay, I didn't realize, for example,
Mexico City was going to be like what Mexico City was,
(18:42):
or like going to a few months ago, I had
the opportunity to go to Peru and hike the Inca Trail.
I kind of had an idea. But when you actually
do it, you do get this appreciation and this perspective
that was different than what it was going into it.
So does it change you?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Maybe it definitely changes your perception of the place and
perhaps your worldview a little bit, so maybe that has changed.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, No, I agree. I think it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I'd love our readers, if you're our readers or listeners.
Readers and listeners, write in and let us know, because
I think it's a really good question.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Like I believe some people go.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
And they're like, I had this magical experience and it
changed something about me. Yeah, personally, Like I think for me,
if I travel, it is more about maybe coming away
with the new discoverer appreciation of something that I really
valued about the right experience, and I guess that is
a form of change.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Anyway.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
You can write into us at adventure at weekendsure dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Let us know how travel has changed you or not
changed or maybe not.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Or just what your thoughts are. Yeah, or if you
want a travel shame, go ahead, Yeah, please please don't.
We've got enough one on in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
But let's get to our conversation with Marty and talk
about this in twenty five hiking Calendar.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
We're delighted to be joined on today's podcast by Marty Todesco,
the senior manager of Media and Communications at the Peninsula
Open Space Trust.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Great to have you on the pod.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Marty, Thank you so much for having me. I've been
looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Well we've been exploring you know, open space, peninsula, open
space trust lands for for years and writing about it.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And you you, you work with.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Some amazing open spaces all over the San Francisco Peninsula area.
I mean, it's just kind of like where do you
where do you even begin? So i'll, you know, we'll
kind of start with you and tell us a little
bit about a little bit about Post and uh, you know,
kind of what's what's new for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Sure, so Post.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
You know that when you think about the San Francisco
Bay Area, you've got this beautiful city that sits at
the end of this peninsula, but you don't really think
about like what makes up that peninsula.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
And that peninsula is the.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Santa Cruz Mountains, and it's like such a unique place
because it's sort of where it's like the southern end
of the Redwood Forest and it just trickles all the
way down just past Santa Cruz. And you know, once
upon a time, Silicon Valley was coming up and it
was just grow, grow, grow, and pave it over and
(21:30):
let's build.
Speaker 6 (21:31):
And people here.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Started to see what was happening in other parts of
the state, and they just said, hey, hold up, I
don't think we want that to happen here.
Speaker 6 (21:40):
We don't think we want that to happen here.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
And so the people of San Mateo County put a
thing on the ballot in nineteen seventy two to create
something called the Mid Peninsula Regional Open Space District. It's
a government district paid for by taxpayer dollars. Well, that
passed resoundingly, so that was all great. They get to
work and they realize, because they're a public agency, private
(22:04):
landowners don't really want to work with them because every
conversation has to be open to the public. So they said,
you know, we really need a private arm to work
with landowners and to identify kind of be out front
identifying lands that make sense for conservation purposes, for you know, biodiversity.
(22:26):
At the time, we weren't even thinking about climate change resilience, right,
we were thinking about our viewshed and our watersheds, but
biodiversity for sure, and also for public access.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
And that's how POST.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
Was formed in nineteen ninety seven as a private, nonprofit
accredited land trust. So handful of people, you know, what's
the old quote, A handful of people just taking action.
And it was you know, literally folks like Ward Pain
and Christie Holloway and Herb Branch and a bunch of
(23:00):
you know, folks in.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
The seventies who just had this vision for how we
could be different.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
And now you know, you fly into SFO, you fly
into San Jose and you see this incredible you know,
built urban infrastructure, these hubs of innovation, and surrounding it
all is amazing green belt.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And I mean, to date, I believe you protected over
eighty nine thousand acres of open space. And as I
was saying earlier, it just keeps going up, which is phenomenal.
And this is forever right, it's a permanent network of
protected land. So I mean that's in San Francisco Peninsula,
South Bay, and I mean that's just such a phenomenal
(23:41):
initiative and a great background of like how you can
make this sea change essentially with a small group of people.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Yeah, and you know it's not just POST that's keeping
up that network. It's state parks, it's county parks, it's
the Open Space District, it's other land trusts like US
you know, like people like Save the Redwoods and Sembervirons
Fund and Land Trust to Santa Cruz County. So it's
this whole network that works together, you know, like like
(24:13):
a ball team. You know, we're all playing different positions
and we're trying to work together to make this, you know,
not only just a you know, a moment of protection,
but also restoration, long term stewardship, long term public access,
all of those things that take various skill sets for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
So how did I mean that's a great mission.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
How did you get involved with Post?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Ah?
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Well, I had I had the great good fortune to
land here as a kid, roaming around the Santa Cruz
Mountains and doing things we probably shouldn't have done to
banana slugs.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
And then and then I ended up here raising my family.
I took some time off from tech to raise our
two kids, and I would get these things in my
mailbox from POST.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
And I was like, great, I'm a little donor. I'm
given to them. And then you know, two thousand and.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Eight happened and they just disappeared, and you know, fast forward,
kids grew up, I go back to work, and this
job at POST comes across you know on LinkedIn, and
it just kept coming through, and I'm like, ah, I'm
not a nonprofit person. But then when I my good
friend Linda goes you gotta do it, So okay, great,
(25:29):
I take an interview, and when I understood what Post
was trying to do, which was to really expand the
community of people who care about conservation, not just expand
their donor base, but expand people of all kinds, all
communities up and down the peninsula, and increase their personal
(25:50):
connection to open space, their personal value of it. Then
that does two things. Not only do we engage donors,
but we get the community members. When things come across,
you know, their ballot box, like Prop four that just passed,
they're more likely to vote on it because they're connected
to how that changes their lives and what that means
(26:11):
to them locally. So we the mission was really to
grow our community, to diversify our community, and to make
this kind of venerable brand that was posted, to open
it up to everybody who wants to be connected to conservation,
(26:33):
not just the few who kind of live along the
green belt and could give a lot of money, but
to open up to anybody who wanted.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
In the tent. So you know that's I was just like, well,
yes to that.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I got to take, you know, my marketing skills that
came from tech and apply them to one of the
best products I've ever had the privilege of selling or
marketing to anybody, and that's open space and nature.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, that's what you know. I think that's so smart.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
The more that you can connect with people and get
them out doors and visiting your parks, the more likely
they are to support you and your mission down the road.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
However that appears, whether it's.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Propositions or even donating money or being a part of
your subscriber list. No, I'm sure this might be a
challenging question, but it might be like picking a favorite child.
But I'm sure you've gone out on many trails that
are protected by post name. If you could just a
few spots that you particularly love.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Okay, well, my go to is Wendy Hill. Beautiful Windy
Hill open space preserved. But my personal favorite on Windy
Hill is taking the Ham's Gould Trail up to Lost
Trail to raise or back and down. It's about a
seven and a half eight miler Oh yeah, neither direction.
(28:01):
But I mean there's no bikes on that trail, so
it's a little easier.
Speaker 6 (28:06):
The face is great.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
I love doing the Spring Ridge Trail on Windy, especially
at this time of year when it's not too hot,
on one of those great winter days where you need
a little vitamin D. That's when you get to go
up the face of Windy and kind of just feel
the sun on your body and then maybe come down Hamskulch.
So that one's really.
Speaker 6 (28:26):
Close to me.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
I do it almost every week, but my favorite favorite
is Long Ridge. Long Ridge open Space preserved managed by Midpen.
Speaker 6 (28:37):
You know, you're.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
Up off of skyline, you kind of drop down, you
go along this beautiful creek and now's a great time
in the fall or winter when there's water. You go
along the creek and then you go up and around
the knoll and then you emerge in this like sound
of music, three sixty view. There's the Stagner Bench up
(29:00):
you're looking out at the butte and No Ridge, you're
looking out at the Pacific.
Speaker 6 (29:03):
It's amazing, great for mountain bikers.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
Not super from an elevation standpoint, so it's pretty accessible
to all kinds of people, and it's like a it's
like a nice five mile miler, but it's just so beautiful,
and you go through all these different habitats and it's just,
I don't know, never never disappoints.
Speaker 6 (29:26):
Yeah, oh those are great.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Those are I mean, you have so much good stuff
to choose from. I'm sure it's hard just to pick
a few. When you were talking about Windy Hill, I
don't get there a lot, But when I do, I'm
telling you, the sunset, it's just at this time of
year especially, it's just a captivating and beautiful I just can't, like,
I'm like, okay, get off your phone, don't take photos,
just enjoy the moment, because I just want to, like,
(29:48):
you know, get the like selfie of this incredible sunset.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
Yeah. Beautiful there. Yeah, I mean you can't.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
You really can't go wrong at any of the preserves
off of Skyline Drive or Highway thirty five, because you know,
looking to the east, you have this panoramic view of
the bay. To the west, you have a panorama of
you know, basically the San Andreas area rolling down to
the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
You just can't go wrong.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
There's and there's gosh, there's a dozen preserves up there.
Speaker 6 (30:21):
You can't go wrong.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It's true that you don't want to.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
Climb up hill, in which case you're out of luck.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
No, I mean Highway thirty five. That has to be
one of the best trailhead highways in the entire state
of California. I mean, there's just so many spots to
go hiking or mountain biking. It's it's incredible. I'm also
partial to a lot of your coastal open spaces. You
were part of helping to protect the cow Prisma Trail, correct, Yeah, yeah,
(30:49):
I remember riding about that early days we can Surpa
when that was.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
A cow bell Yeah, I remember that because you were
key back and you were like, I just this new trail.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
It's phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, that one is so cool.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
I mean, yeah, that's that's really a beautiful spot, as
is Devil Slide Trail. Amazing to see how that got
transitioned over from a highway to a to just a beautiful,
beautiful walking trail that people can go enjoy. Yeah, I mean,
(31:24):
both of those are really really phenomenal.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
Well, you know.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
It is.
Speaker 5 (31:31):
Back in the nineties, our former president Audrey Rusk, she
got this big, audacious vision to do one hundred million
dollar campaign called saving the Endangered Coast. And you know
two organizations, the More Foundation and the Packard Foundation. Between
the two of them, they each gave us twenty five
million dollars and then we raised another fifty million dollars
(31:53):
from individuals and the state and everywhere, and a lot
of what you experienced today. If you're driving south from
half Moon Bay to the Santa Cruz County line, you
have almost I think it's like between thirty or forty
miles without a stop sign, and that's because of those protections.
Now doesn't hold on to these properties. We tend to
(32:14):
transition them to state parks, county parks, open space agencies,
or cities, you know, and.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
There's just no end to what's available out there on
the coast.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
And Cowell is so cool because the cal Parisma Trail,
because you have this farmland right next to you, so
you have an active farm, it's John Juicey's farm, thrust sprouts,
arted chokes, you've got the Pacific Ocean, you know, like whales, birds,
you name it. And the trail is pretty flat, bikes,
(32:50):
great for strollers, great for people who don't want to
do hills, and it's great for like this time of year.
We don't know what to do with the family or
the elders that maybe don't want to go on an
extreme hike. And then you go to lunch and half
Moon Bay and get that artichoke bread and you're good.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
Where do you go for bread in half Moon Bay?
The farm? Oh? You go to gosh, I'll think of it.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
It's a sandwich shop right in the middle of the
main street of half of It.
Speaker 6 (33:17):
I'll put it in the past.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Yeah, let me, I'm gonna I'm gonna get you the
name of it here.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
I love like post hike eating.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Yeah, yeah, as an after hike.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Yeah. Oh yeah, well there that was a.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
Yeah, I'll put it in the chat. It's it's called Archangelie.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
No perfect now tell us. I mean, I don't know
if you're what's going on. I saw lots of different
headlines over the last couple of years regarding Martin's Beach.
What can you tell us what the latest is with that?
Speaker 5 (34:00):
Well, you know, Post isn't involved in any way with
Martin's Beach. Okay, but that was all going on in
twenty seventeen when we got a call from then supervisor
Don Horsley, and he had had this local group that
was trying to get on his docket to say, Hey,
there's this beach south of Martin's Beach called Tanita's Creek Beach.
Speaker 6 (34:24):
It's gone off on social media. It's super steep.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
Getting down there. There's an old dilapidated house. People are
having raives. It's like burning man. Like the Plia comes
to San Mateo County. Right, they were leaving whole generators,
entire camps. They were just trashing this beach.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Right.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
So Don calls us and says, can you do anything?
And we're like, yeah, we can. So we came up
with five million dollars to buy the fifty eight acre parcel,
and then we worked with San Mateo County Parks to
immediately begin put trolling the park, and as part of that,
they started patrolling the cal Parisma trail so it could
(35:06):
be open seven days a week instead of just on
weekends cool. And then we've since transferred it to them.
We've raised like twelve million bucks to help San Mateo
County Parks build their newest county park that's opening next year.
Speaker 6 (35:21):
When called it's called.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
Dawn Horseley County Park at Tanita's Creek Beach fantastic. Yeah,
it's really like so to us, it's like we watched
Martin's Beach for like, let's not do that. Let's make
sure somebody else doesn't do that here, and let's take
this beautiful piece of I mean, it's where Tanita's Creek
(35:47):
flows into the Pacific. It's got this soaring rock well
sandstone cliff to the north. You know, millennia of history
from being an Alnean to people trying to slide redwood
timbers down a chute in the early nineteen hundreds, you know,
(36:11):
to then we bought the house from Chris Isaac who
was not living there and it was totally dilapidated because
there was no water light had taken out the water
to the property. And now it's going to be this
beach with safe parking, ada accessibility, amazing place to bring
(36:32):
you know, your family, your school group. It's going to
have a one point five mile trail on the south
end down to the beach. You used to have to
repel down a rope in the so you know, those
are the types of things where you know, it's a
real public private combo of making this project come together.
(36:56):
And it was just not really an accident, but a
series of people knowing who to call.
Speaker 6 (37:02):
And that's where post.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
Being a little bit more nimble, being private, we could
we could zoom in protect it and work.
Speaker 6 (37:10):
On this deal. Yeah, in the public park.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
So I'm not sure what's happening today on Martin's Beach.
Really looking forward to opening this project with County Parks
in a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
It's going to open up in a few weeks.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
Well, you know that the timeline keeps moving.
Speaker 5 (37:30):
That's awesome ause of this point, the long pole in
the tent is the fabrication of guardrails, and you probably going.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
To have to remove the repelling rope too. I imagine the.
Speaker 6 (37:41):
Repelling rope is gone. Yeah, redwood whatever.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
I remember when I was early days, we can sure.
I mean, it's such a the way you described it,
Marty is really beautiful. And when you're driving on the highway,
on Highway one, you do see this beach and it's like, wow,
what what is that? And I remember stopping as a
potential we can surp a story. Uh, this is you know,
several years ago and I repelled down that rope and
(38:10):
as soon as and in the middle of the repel,
I was like we're not writing about this. We can't
write about this and good conscious. So I'm glad to
see that it's being turned that you guys are involved,
and it's going to become a beautiful park for everybody
to enjoy without the repelling.
Speaker 6 (38:27):
Yeah, without the repelling.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Sure, a fantastic thing to look forward to in the
new year.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, speaking of.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
New Years, Uh, you have a hiking calendar. Yes, as
an editor, I'm actually you know, I've been I've been
studying up on which I love your calendar. It's a
go to every year. It's your you know, the Post
twenty twenty five hiking calendar. I think it's a must
have every year because it's both inspiring and super helpful.
Speaker 6 (38:58):
Like if you want to go hiking, if you're.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Just like, you know, I'm busy, but I need to
do a hike a month at least. You know, this
is the calendar. I mean, you're gonna want to do
like many more because of how good calendars. But it's
just got to me such great hikes for the season,
So you know, like, Okay, it's January, it's this hike.
This is why it's good. Now, this is what to
look for. This is what to expect, and just even
(39:24):
very helpful and full like what mileage, what's the terrain?
Like you know, it's the easy, difficult, more challenging, eighty accessibility,
great information, you know.
Speaker 6 (39:34):
Dog friendly or not.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I just I love the calendar.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
I think it's fantastic, and I wanted to hear about like,
you know how you guys work on that every year
and if you're gonna if you're willing to drop a
couple of hints about maybe if a few of the
hikes you might find in there.
Speaker 6 (39:51):
Yeah, well I think you just said it, which is
you can you can just go out for a hike.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
A lot of people never make it though, right They think, well,
I'd like to try it, but there's this sort.
Speaker 6 (40:06):
Of mental barrier of where do I go? How do
I do it?
Speaker 5 (40:09):
Maybe I'm not experienced hiker, Maybe I'm not comfortable with
going someplace new.
Speaker 6 (40:15):
So it's kind of.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
That whole equation of using this guide that's really accessible
to make the outdoors accessible to people who might not
otherwise do it right, so you can go there, you
can say, ah, first hike that we have for twenty
twenty five the gene Lour Trail at Pillar Point Bluff.
So Pillar Point is that bluff that looks out over
(40:37):
where the Mavericks serve competition. I don't know if they
still have it, but it used to be out there
by Princeton, by the sea, by the Halfman Bay Airport.
Dog friendly, bike friendly, stroller friendly, just really super accessible.
And if that to break down the barriers, whether they
(41:02):
you know, real or imagined, to get folks outside. And
then the other part is, you know, just don't just
go out there and like do the thing, what to
look for, how to connect with the landscape and in
those seasons because it's always changing. You know, we have
a similar guide for wild flowers, and that's always super
(41:24):
popular because like it's so ephemeral. You know, these things,
they're not all they're not always out there. So you
could go out to you could go out to Pillar
Point Bluff. You could go out there in a day
that's absolutely socked in. You could go out on a
day where you're you're saying, eighty miles up and down
the coast and everything in between, you know, and it's
it's just not that far and it's not that hard
(41:46):
to get to. So you know, we do it once
a year and when you sign up for that, then
you get an email from us every month reminding you
about your hike of the month too, So you know,
all the little things combined just hopefully break down barriers
and get people more comfortable getting.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Out out there.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
And it's you know, it's become kind of a tradition
where we do our annual top ten list fore wee
can Sirpa, and we promote the Post Hiking calendar for
that year for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
So I believe this podcast.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Is going to be going live when the top ten
list comes out, as well as promotion for your upcoming calendar,
and people can find it on our website or they
can find it at openspace trust dot org. And then
you'll be in the inner circle of friends with Post
and get all of the good stuff, including some of
(42:43):
their favorite hikes, and you'll have a hike every month
for twenty twenty five if you download that calendar, which
we highly recommend.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
It's so nice to me, Marty, I really have tremendous
respect for the work that you're doing. I do have
one more question in addition to you know, getting involved
through like hiking in obviously getting the calendars, which are
so worth it. How else can people get involved with Post?
Speaker 6 (43:06):
We have there's a lot of different ways, you know.
Speaker 5 (43:09):
The easiest thing is join our email list, learn something
every month, find a place to go every month, follow
us on social media, so minimal, right.
Speaker 6 (43:21):
If you want to move out from there. We have
a ton of events. We're running like five.
Speaker 5 (43:26):
We run ambassador led hikes every week. We always have
like ten a month. We have lots of other events,
movies online, we have thing coming in up in January.
We have Fungi fundamentals. We have a fung Guy expert
coming online that's online, so you just log in and
learn about the fabulous fun guy. So there's events, there's
(43:50):
ways to learn, and you can of course donate to posts.
That's really easy online, do it on your phone. And
you can always vote for environmental measures that fund our
partners that take care of these these lands, you know,
long after Post has left the picture.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Very cool. That's great. Well, thank you so much, Marty.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
It's been a pleasure to have you on the podcast
today and telling us more about Posts and all the
good stuff going on, and sharing a couple of tidbits
of your favorite places to get outdoors.
Speaker 5 (44:21):
Well, thanks for having me and I've been a huge
fan of weekend shurpas for many years and keep up
the good work and getting people outside.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Thanks Marty,
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