04/13/09
You can also catch this fantastic travel and outdoors show on OpenRoad.tv.
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04/06/09
Longtime Bay Area Backroads host explores the West on his new PBS show.
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03/13/09
Doug McConnell revisits Black Diamond Mines and announces the debut of his new show on PBS.
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02/02/09
The north coast of California is still spectacular—but climate change is taking a serious toll
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01/05/09
As much as I love exploring California, the West and the nation, I love traveling far and wide in hopes of seeing everything and every place the planet has to offer. Of course, I'll never see it all, but I continue to pretend.
Wherever I go, near or far, I very much enjoy finding geographic quirks. I've spent quite a bit of time on the Big Island of Hawaii, from its base to its summit the tallest mountain on earth and the southernmost piece of the United States. The northernmost, westernmost and easternmost state in the union is Alaska. I lived there a long time and always got a big kick out of its many geographic wonders. More coastline than the rest of the US combined, the highest peak in North America, of course (please call it Denali, not McKinley,...
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12/15/08
Most of us in these uncertain economic times are watching our pennies pretty closely. I know I am. I've got to keep a close eye on what I spend, but I don't want to go into a cave and hide until things get better. I may have to scale back my adventures, but I want to continue exploring, having new experiences, meeting new people, learning new things and having fun. I want to keep living. So I've got to figure out where to go with a little dough.
Funny, that's the name of a one-hour special I'm co-hosting with Mary Babbitt of "In Wine Country." Our special, "Where to Go with a Little Dough," will be broadcast on NBC Bay Area after the Superbowl on Sunday evening, February 1. Watch the game, and then we'll have a show full of tips about...
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12/01/08
I've been thinking quite a bit about going to Washington D.C. for the inaugural on January 20. I actually have access to a couple of standing room tickets and it's awfully tempting to join four-million of my closest friends for this historic occasion. I've spent quite a bit of time in Washington over the years and love the old swamp. Being a politics and history junkie (my majors through college and graduate school,) I'm just compelled to experience the moment in person. On the other hand, I'd like my boys, 25 and 17, to have the opportunity, too. Someday, they can tell their kids that they were there. At 15, I dearly wish I had heard JFK's inaugural in person on that brisk and cold day. At 18, I would love to have been in the swealtering throng below the Lincoln Memorial to...
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11/11/08
Most Californians have never traveled to the four corners of their state, at least three of them, anyway. One corner of California is actually pretty busy and many of us have been there. That's the southwest corner that consists of the San Diego metropolitan region. But the other three are anything but overrun, especially the northeast corner that rubs borders with Nevada and Oregon. This is the place where Old West still lives. Modoc County.
Modoc County has about 9,000 people and just one stoplight that blinks red on and off in the county seat of Alturas. It's a big, broad and rugged territory where cattle outnumber people, where the wide-open landscape evokes Wyoming more than California and where rough mountains climb to sensational views of a Surprise Valley. ...
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10/22/08
The day after tomorrow I'm headed down towards the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge along the southeast edge of the Bay, next to Fremont and Union City.
I'm going to get an update on the huge baylands restoration project underway on Cargill's old salt ponds. Ultimately, more than 16,000 acres will be returned to nature. It is the largest urban wetlands restoration ever undertaken, and it will breathe new life into the Bay. Among many other things, it will be a critical resting and feeding place for migrating birds whose habitat has been severely degraded along the eastern flanks of the Pacific. And it will become a sanctuary for us humans seeking respite from the crush of city life nearby.
A generation ago, the fate of...
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10/07/08
It's a cool grey morning as I write this and warm up with a rich latte. In a few minutes, I'll leave my favorite place for coffee in Marin, Emporio Rulli in Larkspur, and drive westward over the hills to Point Reyes National Seashore. I'm filming a story about the restoration of an important wetland on Tomales Bay. The restoration will expand California's coastal wetlands by 12%. It's a big, important and positive environmental tale....and a nice one to tell today while gloomy economic news rides with me on the radio.
My time is short, so this blog will be, too. Point Reyes always brightens my spirits, so if you need a little cheering up, take the short trip west to soak up the Park's beauty. Visit the historic lighthouse perched high above the...
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