New Boat 4 Sled

[sleddog]

Correct on Lobo Canyon, Santa Rosa Island. Windswept San Miguel Island has no year around streams nor riparian habitat. https://www.theoutbound.com/los-ange...nel-islands-np

Since Ants correctly answered our geography question as being Lobo Canyon on Santa Rosa Island, we will use off-the-beaten path to Santa Rosa Island in another quiz, this time for 2 TJ's lemon bars for first to answer. Who or what first swam from the California mainland to Santa Rosa Island?

1) A cornucopia of banana slugs.
2) An earth of island foxes.
3) Lynne Cox on a training swim.
4) Juana María, who began the crossing on the Rainbow Bridge, but jumped off to swim with the dolphins below
5) A parade of woolly mammoths sniffing island scents with their snorkel like trunks
6) A mischief of now extinct giant mice.
7) A munchkin dudleya
8) The now protected wima.
9) A clowder of saber-tooth cats.

PS, Has any reader visited Santa Rosa Island? It's the least visited National Park. I've anchored there, but never made it ashore. Too windy.

[AntsUiga]

#1 A cornucopia of banana slugs!

It may not seem probable, however the banana slugs swim and the team name was chosen by the UC Santa Cruz swim team. My only concern is that banana slugs do not do well with granular salt. Salty water must be different.

Ants

[Intermission]

No idea who swam there, but we too did not go ashore after two nights on the hook. After we weighed anchor, we did a drive by past the pier and thought if we anchored closer next time, we could make it to a small floating dock alongside the pier without having to attempt a beach landing. The park (ranch) looked intriguing.

[Philpott]

#5 pygmy mammoths. Easy peasy but I don't see a posted reward. I am all about the carrots.

[sleddog]

Sorry, Philpott. #5, woolly mammoths is correct. These woolly mammoths were full size critters and were the first to swim from the Mainland to Santa Rosa Island between 80,000 to 13,000 years ago. But you changed the answer to "pygmy" mammoths, which is not correct. 5 foot tall pygmy mammoths developed over thousands of years on Santa Rosa from their much larger, 14 foot tall, 10 ton, Columbian woolly mammoth forebears. Pygmy mammoths were not the first to swim to Santa Rosa (and San Miguel and Santa Cruz.) In fact, they never swam there, but as mentioned above developed as an endemic species on the islands. Your "easy peasy" answer is not correct and no Lemon Bars will be awarded.

Note to all contestants: read the trivia wording carefully, and don't edit the answer. Enuf said.

Yes, banana slugs did make their way to Santa Rosa Island, and live there to this day. And although they can swim with a twisting motion, it is unlikely they swam there as salt water would dehydrate them. More likely they arrived on forest detritus drifting from the mainland. Or developed from a sea snail that had already arrived.

PS#2 Juana Maria was a real person and a book was written about her titled Island of the Blue Dolphins, a must read right up there with Sailing on Wildflower.

[Philpott]

[sleddog]

Interesting people hang out at Inverness Yacht Club boatyard. How would I know a neighbor from a nearby boat just sang a duet for the King of England at his Coronation? May I introduce IYC member tenor Mark Bonney, back row, tall gentleman at right.

.

Here's a closeup of Mark, on the left.


Congratulations, Good Sir! (Mark is the only one we know who memorized a 110 race course by singing it to himself.) http://www.markbonneytenor.com/listen.html

[Tchoupitoulas]

We were lucky enough to visit Santa Rosa Island during a spectacular week of weather in late September 2008. The Island Packers boat delivered us, our kayaks, and a pile of gear from Channel Islands Harbor to Santa Rosa Island, with a stop at Santa Cruz Island, in about 3.5 hours if I remember correctly. It's an easy, though over a mile, walk to the campground which keeps it lightly attended. We employed various rolling devices to make the trek some of which were successful. The kayaks can be paddled from the pier to the beach in front of the campground, which is set in a canyon above the beach with lean-to's at each tent site and a very nice vault toilet/solar hot shower. Bechers Bay beach is one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen.

[Tchoupitoulas]

We arrived five days before the lobster season opened so were not able to have fresh bait, but I was determinded to try it.

[Tchoupitoulas]

It was one of the last years the Gherini family was still running an Elk hunt so the roads around the island were off limits to hikers. We were lucky enough to get a ride from a park service vehicle to the remote canyon.